Assessing the demand for labour in the Capital Goods ...cgsc.in/pdf/Capital Good Labour Market...

Assessing the demand for labour in the Capital Goods Sector in Maharashtra

Status: Final version

Date: 29 March 2016

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Table of content

Chapters

Table of content 2

Executive summary 4

Introduction 4

Participating companies and their workforce 4

Employee turnover and recruitment 5

Women and people with disabilities 6

Opinions on the economic situation 6

Training of employees 6

Employee benefits 7

Conclusions 7

1 Introduction 9

1.1 The India EU Skills Development Project 9

1.2 The Capital Goods Skill Council 9

1.3 A labour market analysis of the sector 10

2 Context of the study 11

2.1 The economy and labour market in Maharashtra 11

2.2 Specific features of the capital goods sector 11

3 Methodology 13

3.1 Data collection methodology 13

3.2 Selection of companies for the enterprise survey 14

3.3 Data analysis 16

3.4 Limitations of the study 16

4 Findings 18

4.1 Characteristics of the participating companies 18

4.2 Composition of the workforce 19

4.3 Employee turnover and recruitment & selection of new employees 27

4.4 Opinions on and expectations for the economic situation of the sector 38

4.5 Training and training providers 44

4.6 Employee benefits and the going rates for the most common job roles 47

4.7 Technical information on CNC setters cum operators and on Fitters-Fabrication 52

5 Conclusions and recommendations 58

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5.1 Set up a system for labour market analysis 58

5.2 Active involvement in future labour market analyses 58

5.3 Determine the size of the unorganised sector 59

5.4 Use the information about the most common job roles 60

5.5 Recruitment and selection 60

5.6 Supply of labour for common job roles 61

5.7 Role of companies and training providers in education and training 62

5.8 Career paths 63

6 List of consulted documents 64

List of figures Figure 1 - Reasons for higher turnover and recruitment problems (in number of companies) *) 30 Figure 2 - Approach to higher turnover and recruitment problems (in number of companies) *) 30 Figure 3 - Methods to recruit new employees by company size (in terms of number of workers) 31 Figure 4 - Criteria used for the selection of workers 33 Figure 5 - Criteria for the selection of contractors 33 Figure 6 – Where do you recruit new employees? Figure 7 - Would you recruit under- or overqualified employees? 34 Figure 8 - Most common job roles for which women and disabled persons would be considered 36 Figure 9 - Rating of the current and last year’s economic situation 37 Figure 10 - Expected economic developments 40 Figure 11 - Type of training use to train new employees *) 45 Figure 12 - Nature of relationship between companies and training institutes *) 46 Figure 13 - Most important issues when dealing with training institutes 47 Figure 14 - Employee benefits 48 Figure 15 - Minimum and maximum going rates for the most common job roles for employees and

contract workers 51 Figure 16 - Rating the skills and knowledge of staff in the field of CNC work, graduates in this field

and/or the importance of this for the company 54 Figure 17 -- Rating of the skills and knowledge of workers in field of fitter fabrication, graduates in this

field and/or the importance of this for the company 56

List of tables Table 1 - Response by division and number of additional participants through recommendation 15 Table 2 - Characteristics of participating companies 18 Table 3 - Number of workers by category and sub-sector 20 Table 4 - Job roles mentioned by job role category and distribution by company size (in terms of workers) 23 Table 5 - Job roles mentioned by job role category and distribution by sub-sector 24 Table 6 - Number of workers per job role category by sub-sector 26 Table 7 - Number of workers in differnt categories of workers by job role category 27 Table 8 - Employee turnover compared to last year by sector, division, average number of workers

and vacancies 28 Table 9 – Reported issues concerning turnover, recruitment and skill problems for the most common

job roles 29 Table 10 - Changes in the size of the workforce in the last year 39 Table 11 - Does the company plan for capital investments in the next year? 41 Table 12 - Expected changes in the size of the workforce in the next year 43

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Executive summary

Introduction The capital goods sector is regarded a strategic sector for the development of India’s economy,

which is why the development of capabilities for the sector is considered essential from the

perspective of national self-reliance and security. The capital goods industry contributes 12% to the

total manufacturing output and about 1.8% to the country’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP).

In May and June 2015, the India –EU skill project and the Capital Goods Skill Council (CGSC) have

conducted an enterprise survey among capital goods companies in the state of Maharashtra.

Maharashtra is the second largest state in India with a relatively high Gross State Domestic Product

(GSDP), which has been growing rapidly over the last few years. The industrial and service sectors

account for 23% and 64% of the GSDP respectively while the remaining 13% comes from the

agriculture sector. This contrasts with the distribution of labour force over the different sectors, i.e.

64% in agriculture, 14% in industrial sectors and 22% in services. A large number of workers work is

estimated to work in the unorganised sector and unorganised workers are present in most economic

sectors.

The project recruited external interviewers to collect primary data during structured interviews. The

focus of the study was on assessing the occupational structure, human resources management

practices and skill needs in the capital goods industry, as well as on the collection of information for

the development of curricula for CNC-Setter-cum-operator and Fitter-Fabrication. The findings and

conclusions are mostly of a qualitative nature, meant to better understand the composition of the

labour force, employee turnover, recruitment and selection practices and problems, expected

economic developments, workforce training practices, the nature and problems in relationships

between companies and training providers, etc. In short, the collected information would need to

improve our understanding of labour market developments in the sector in Maharashtra, allowing

for appropriate measures and initiatives, for example in the field of education and training.

This being the first of its kind survey for the Capital Goods Sector, the response rate was low so the

researchers had to adopt a non-probability (i.e. not random) method of “snowball sampling” or

“referral sampling”. Though some unorganised sector companies took part in the survey, the main

focus was on the organised sector, commencing with the members of sub sectoral associations

represented on the Governing Council of Capital Goods Skill Council. Taking this into account, as well

as the fact that the findings of the study cannot be compared to the results of any previous surveys,

it is recommended to validate the finding with one or more future surveys.

Participating companies and their workforce Representatives of a total of 105 companies participated in the enterprise survey. The two biggest

sub-sectors were machine tools, and dies, moulds and press tools. Smaller sub-sectors in the survey

are light engineering goods, other capital goods sectors, and the unorganised sector. Half of the

companies were based in Pune, almost a third in Mumbai, and 10% and 8% were based in

Aurangabad and Nashik respectively. In terms of the number of workers, 41% were small size

companies, 37% medium size, 13% large, and the remaining 9% were from the unorganised sector.

Companies that took part in the survey had on average 220 workers and 6.5 vacancies. On average

they had 70% permanent employees, 12% contract workers, 10% temporary employees and 5%

trainees. Only 1% of the positions were vacant and the share of casual workers was negligible.

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In terms of number of workers, companies producing dies, moulds and press tools were relatively

small with an average of 88 workers. This was also the case for companies based outside Pune,

especially in Konkan division where the average number of workers was 60. The average number of

workers in the participating unorganised sector companies was 6.3.

In terms of vacancies, small and medium-sized companies had a higher vacancy rate than other

companies, i.e. 3% and 4% on average respectively. This was also the case for companies producing

dies, moulds and press tools, where 6% of the positions were vacant on average. The vacancy rate in

Pune was lower than in the other divisions (i.e. 1% versus 2%) and higher in unorganised sector

where 7% of the positions was vacant.

Though there were major differences in the composition of the workforce in the different sub-

sectors, six job role categories accounted for more than two thirds of the workers in the most

common job roles in the participating companies. These job role categories are:

Design Roles - Designer / draughtsman

Machinist Roles - CNC operator

Machinist Roles - Conventional machine operator

Production Roles - Assembly - Fitter – Mechanical / Maintenance

Welding and Related Roles

Projects and Planning Roles

The number of vacancies for CNC operators and project and planning roles is relatively high

compared to the number of workers in these job role categories. On the other hand, the number of

vacancies for welders and related roles and for fitter – mechanical / maintenance is relatively low.

Employee turnover and recruitment Two out of five companies reported that turnover was higher for staff in the most common job roles

than in other job roles and 58% reported recruitment problems for these job roles. The higher

turnover concerned 11% of the most common job roles and recruitment problems were reported for

22% of the most common job roles. Retention strategies involved mostly financial measures, though

non-financial measures have been reported as well.

Skill related problems were mentioned for 10% of the most common job roles, especially for CNC

operator job roles, followed by tool and die makers, conventional machine operators, welding and

related roles, and for marketing, research and service roles.

Unorganised sector and small companies used especially informal recruitment methods (like

recruitment through word of mouth, of walk-ins, through the network of the company, etc.),

whereas medium-sized and large companies preferred a combination of informal and formal

methods (such as recruitment via a training institute, advertisements on internet, etc.). The

employment exchange was not a favoured recruitment method by any category of companies.

Almost half of the participating companies recruit employees from all over India and a third only

from the places near the companies. Selection criteria vary significantly between sub-sectors. For

example, unorganised sector companies gave little importance to certificates, diplomas or degrees

but preferred to recruit underqualified workers, while having the right qualifications was much more

important for larger companies. Work experience is more important for smaller companies than for

larger ones, and micro-sized and large companies laid greater importance to references of previous

employers than small and medium-sized companies. None of the companies want to work with over-

qualified workers.

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Women and people with disabilities Though two thirds of the companies employed women, the share of women in the workforce is not

big (i.e. 4%). The situation is similar for persons with disabilities: 13% of the companies had employed

one or more persons with a disability but the share of this group in the labour force is negligible.

Nevertheless, half of the respondents indicated that they would consider recruiting women and 30%

would consider recruiting disabled persons for the most common job roles. When asked to specify

for which job roles, respondents indicated that they would recruit women for job role categories like

designer / draughtsman, CNC Programmer, CNC (setter cum) operator, and quality, managerial and

supervisory roles. Fewer job role categories were mentioned for disabled people, i.e. CNC

Programmer, designer / draughtsman and CNC operator.

Opinions on the economic situation When respondents were asked to rate the current economic situation, the responses were not very

positive. Respondents of companies producing dies, moulds and press tools and respondents of

companies based in Pune are more positive than others, while respondents of unorganised sector

companies and respondents of companies based in Konkan rate the situation more negative than

others. On the other hand, the workforce of the respondents’ companies did increase in the last

year. The reported increase was bigger for companies producing dies, moulds and press tools, as well

as for companies based in Konkan division and for medium-sized companies. The increase involved

especially job role categories like CNC operators and assembly fitters mechanical/maintenance, and

to a lesser extend marketing, research and service roles. Decreases were reported for quality roles,

helpers and component fabrication and preparation.

The respondents appeared positive about the future: three out of four participants believed that the

economic situation will improve in the year to come, especially of companies producing “other”

capital goods1. About two-fifths of the companies plan for capital investments, which can be

regarded as an indicator of the level of confidence of the participating business representatives. The

majority of the capital investments plans concerned the adoption of new technology that will change

the way of working in the company. Respondents expected that the workforce will grow in the year

to come, but only a few companies specified the job roles for which this would be the case. The ones

that did, mentioned especially fabrication fitters, CNC operators, conventional machine operators

and staff in project and planning roles.

Training of employees Practically all companies train new employees.. The most common type of training was on the job

and about a third of the participants had non-formal/structured training programme in the company.

Slightly fewer companies used formal training by an outside provider.

Two out of five participating companies had a direct relation with training providers. The nature of

the relationship between the companies and the training institutes differed, but recruitment

activities were an important part. Another important element was that apprenticeship students or

trainees of the training institutes were placed in the company, and a third of the companies co-

operated with visits of the students to the company. A very small number of companies provided the

institutes with training facilities. Typical concerns when dealing with training providers were the use

of outdated curricula resulting in students lacking necessary knowledge and skills, the institute’s staff

1 Other capital goods are specified in Table 2, and include companies producing process plant equipment,

tools & gauges, power & electrical equipment, textile machinery, and material handling and lifting

equipment.

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lacking skills, students lacking motivation, and the absence of a good training infrastructure in the

institutes. Many participants remarked that there is a gap between the quality of the students with a

certificate or diploma and the needs of the companies and that training should be up-to-date and

with a strong “practice oriented” component.

Employee benefits Most common employee benefits were medical insurance or medical services for employees,

bonuses and paid leave days. Other employee benefits offered by a relatively big share of

respondents were bonuses and gratuity.

Respondents have given the minimum and maximum wages they would need to pay when recruiting

new employees and contract workers for the most common job roles. The wages for employees are

substantially higher than for contract workers. It seems that contract workers are especially hired for

relatively simple jobs which would justify a lower rate, and jobs that require dealing with strategic

information are generally not done by contract workers. The range between the minimum and

maximum rate for employees is much larger for some job role categories than for others. For

example, for categories like designer/draughtsmen, quality roles, projects and planning roles, and

marketing, research and service roles, the rate range is much larger than for welding and related

roles, helpers, and CNC setter cum operator roles. This suggests that the first mentioned group of job

role categories offers potential for professional growth, while employees in the second group of job

role categories have less room for growth.

Conclusions Based on the findings, the experts have formulated several recommendations on the following

subjects:

1. The role of the CGSC in future labour market analyses

2. Determining the share of the unorganised sector in the capital goods sector

3. The use of the most common job roles identified during this labour market analysis when

updating the National Occupational Standards/Qualification Packs (NOS/QPs)

4. The need for labour market analysis on a regular basis to understand fluctuations and

differences in the labour market.

5. The role of public and private employment services organisations, the possibility that

retention strategies can conflict with recognition of prior learning initiatives, targeting labour

market shortages by targeting less common groups of workers (like women, workers with a

disability) and the planning of education and training based on the location of the demand

for labour

6. The need for skill development programmes to target job roles for which there are current

shortages (i.e. high turnover, recruitment problems, skill problems)

7. The need for training providers to take an active role in collaboration with employers to offer

training with more opportunities for the students to acquire practical skills, the need to

review the use of equipment and tools in the training centres in vocational education, the

role of training providers in the upgrading of skills of the current workforce and the need to

develop or evaluate curricula based on the inputs of employers.

8. The need to include information about career paths in the NOS/QPS, career progression as

retention strategy for all workers and the inclusion of career path information in curricula

development for education and training.

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The information about CNC-setters-cum-operators and fitters-fabrication, which was collected

through a separate questionnaire, has been briefly presented in this report and will be used to

evaluate curricula for these job roles.

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1 Introduction

1.1 The India EU Skills Development Project

The India-EU Skills Development project funded by the European Union assists the National Skill

Development Agency (NSDA) and selected State Skill Development Missions (SSDMs) and Sector Skill

Councils (SSCs) in implementing policies aimed at skilling a large numbers of Indian men and women

to increase their employability and entrepreneurship, as a precondition of economic and social

development. The project does this by using international experience for developing institutional

capacities in the Indian context, by helping to define standards and procedures of implementing the

National Skill Qualification Framework (NSQF) and by supporting the development of the Indian

Labour Market Information System (LMIS). At the ground level the project experts work with the

Indian partners on piloting Labour Market Analyses through enterprise surveys to determine the

structure of the workforce, human resources management practices and training needs. Project

experts and Indian partners also work on developing and testing examples of competence based

curricula and on training the trainers and assessors.

One component of the Project has been tasked to enhance labour market and analyses at the

national as well as the state/industrial cluster level. The intention is to build on what has already

been achieved, to identify gaps and to support improvement. More specifically in regards to labour

market information at the state/cluster level, it is planned to pilot new or amended methods of

implementing a sector LMA, drawing on resources allocated by the Sector Skills Councils. These

sector LMAs report on specific aspects of the labour market, and the outcomes can be used to target

(quantitative and qualitative) labour market constraints and the development of new skill developing

programmes or the update of existing ones.

1.2 The Capital Goods Skill Council The Capital Goods Skill Council (CGSC) is responsible for the skills development for the capital goods

sector in India. The CGSC is a not-for-profit organisation, registered under the Societies Registration

Act, 1860. The Council has been promoted by the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and

Industry (FICCI) and by the Department of Heavy industries (DHI) and receives financial support by

National Skill Development Corporation (NSDC).

The purpose of establishing CGSC is to ensure that the capital goods industry is able to grow with

skilled manpower, as well as to increase its productivity and profitability.

The CGSC is expected to create a dynamic LMIS to keep track of the labour market skill gaps, to

develop occupational standards, to facilitate the development of practical and high quality training

content, and to ensure adequate availability of faculty through “Train The Trainer” initiatives. It will

also build accreditation and certification mechanisms, and encourage capacity building through

private sector participation.

To achieve the objective of creating a robust and vibrant eco-system for quality education and skill

development in the capital goods sector, the CGSC has the mandate to:

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Identify skill development needs, including the preparation of a catalogue of types of skills,

range and depth of skills to facilitate individuals to choose from them;

Develop of a sector skill development plan and maintain a skill inventory;

Determine skills/competency standards and qualifications.

Standardise affiliation and accreditation processes;

Participate in affiliation, accreditation, examination and certification;

Plan and execute training of trainers;

Promote academies of excellence;

Establish a well-structured sector specific LMIS to assist the planning and delivery of training.

1.3 A labour market analysis of the sector In line with the objectives of the project and of the CGSC, the following objectives have been set for

the LMA:

To test a methodology to collect primary data on human resources management practices,

training needs and skills requirements for technical workers/employees,

To better understand the skills demand and human resource management practices in the

sector, and

To collect information for the development of curricula for the job roles of CNC-Setter-cum-

operator and Fitter-Fabrication.

In May and June 2015, the project and the Capital Goods Skill Council (CGSC) have implemented a

labour market analysis in the state of Maharashtra. The findings of this study are presented in this

technical report. The methodology has been evaluated in a “lessons learned” report, in order to

highlight positive and practical learning that can be used for future, similar exercises.

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2 Context of the study

2.1 The economy and labour market in Maharashtra Maharashtra is the second largest state in India, both in terms of population and geographic area.

According to the 2011 census the State has a population of approximately 11 crore, which is 9.3% of

India’s entire population. 45% of the population resides in urban areas, which also makes

Maharashtra one of the most urbanised states in India.

The gross state domestic product (GSDP) at current prices for 2013-14 is estimated at 15 10 132

crores and contributes about 14.4% of the overall GDP of India. The GSDP has been growing rapidly

over the last few years. At present industrial and service sectors together contribute approximately

87.1% of the State’s income. The agriculture sector and related activities contribute the remaining

12.9% of the State’s income.

The calculations of GSDP between 2004-05 and 2009-10 show high economic growth rates for

Maharashtra in the last decade. Between 2004-05 and 2009-10, Maharashtra’s economy grew at

11.1%, a faster rate than in comparative states and more than the all-India average of 9%.

Though agriculture contributes only 13% to the GSDP of Maharashtra, 64% of the labour force is

active in this sector. Maharashtra, unlike other States, has only a small proportion of the share of

employment in the industrial sector, amounting to just 14%. This is despite the fact that the

industrial sector has a rather large contribution to the GSDP. In the service sector, the labour force is

relatively small (22%) but contributes a large share of GSDP (64%), which points to high labour

productivity in the sector.

The draft labour policy 2011 for Maharashtra highlights that a large number of workers operate in

the unorganised sector. These include:

Shops and establishments sector workers,

Agricultural workers,

Almost 2 000 000 domestic workers,

Building and construction workers,

Loading and unloading workers, and

Almost 32 000 security guards.

In addition to these groups of unorganised sector workers, which have been mentioned in the

Maharashtra labour policy, most other economic sectors also have a share of unorganised workers

contributing in some way to the performance of the sector.

2.2 Specific features of the capital goods sector Capital Goods sector comprises the production of plant and machinery, equipment /accessories

required for manufacture / production, either directly or indirectly, of goods or for rendering

services, including those required for replacement, modernization, technological up-gradation and

expansion. It also includes packaging machinery and equipment, refrigeration equipment, power

generating sets, equipment and instruments for testing, research and development, quality and

pollution control.

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The capital goods sector is crucial for the development of India’s economy for the two reasons.

Firstly, the capital goods sector is considered a strategic sector and the development of the necessary

capabilities because the sector is essential from a national self-reliance and security perspective.

Secondly, the capital goods sector has a direct effect on the growth of the user industries as it

provides critical input, i.e., machinery and equipment, to the remaining sectors covered under the

manufacturing activity. The capital goods industry contributes 12% to the total manufacturing

activity (which is about 15% of the GDP).

With a view to achieve 9% growth in GDP during the 12th Five Year Plan, the manufacturing industry

should grow at least by 11% to 13% per annum. This would mean that the Capital Goods sector,

which is considered to be the core of manufacturing, should grow at around 17% to 19%

(Department of Heavy Industry, 2011)).

Economic performance of the capital goods sector is linked with that of the manufacturing industry

which is the key end-user of the Capital Goods industry. The capability to manufacture most of the

major capital goods exists indigenously. However, given the superior technology competitiveness and

competitive pricing of foreign players, the sector faces a stiff competition from imported

machineries. The output of the sector is concentrated with a top few companies in most product

groups, followed by a section of companies comprising medium to small scale players. Indian

companies lack export thrust as the focus is largely on the domestic market. However, some of the

larger players are exploring export market growth targeted especially towards the Middle East and

Asian markets. The sector is expected to rely on government support in areas like export financing

and promotion to tap vast global capital goods market opportunity (National Skill Development

Corporation, 2012).

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3 Methodology

For the Labour Market Analysis (LMA) Information from secondary and primary sources has been

collected to understand the situation in the labour market for companies producing capital goods in

the state of Maharashtra. Sources of secondary information were information portals of the

government of India and the government of Maharashtra. Also, the CGSC has provided the

consultants with reports on previous research in the sector and with the qualification profiles that

have been developed for 56 job roles that are common in the sector. Of these 56 qualification

profiles, 31 were final and 25 were under public view at the time of the implementation of the

survey, and can still be changed. See the list of consulted documents on page 64 for more

information.

Primary data has been collected during an enterprise survey in the Maharashtra in May and June

2015. Prior to and in parallel with the implementation of the survey, primary (qualitative)

information has also been collected from representatives of the CGSC and from the project’s expert

in skills development for the capital goods sector, Mr Michael Wolf.

Findings based on secondary data and on (primary) information collected from the CGSC and the

project’s sector expert have been presented in the previous chapters. The collected primary

information have been included in chapter 4.

3.1 Data collection methodology For the collection of primary data for this study, the experts have developed three structured

questionnaires for

1. Companies in the organised sector

2. Companies in the unorganised sector

3. Shop floor managers of CNC setter cum operators and fitters fabrication

The questionnaires have been discussed in detail with representatives of the CGSC. All

questionnaires are included in Appendix 1.

The first questionnaire has been used most and has been designed to collect information from

companies that are not part of the unorganised sector. It covers subjects like the occupational

structure of companies, skills and training needs, common practices in recruitment and training, the

economic situation in the sector and financial packages and benefits for workers in the most

common job roles.

The second questionnaire is designed for companies in the unorganised sector. The National

Commission for Enterprises in the Unorganised Sector (NCEUS) defines the unorganised or informal

sector as:

"… all unincorporated private enterprises owned by individuals or households engaged

in the sale and production of goods and services operated on a proprietary or

partnership basis and with less than ten total workers".

(From: National Commission for Enterprises in the Unorganised Sector, 2008, page 3)

The questionnaire for the unorganised sector is similar to the questionnaire for the organised sector,

but a number of questions have been removed because they are not so relevant for unorganised

sector companies and because the interviewers have conducted the interviews without the help of a

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paper version of the questionnaire (so as to not to scare off potential unorganised sector

respondents) which is easier if the questionnaire is shorter.

The third questionnaire for shop floor managers that supervise CNC setters cum operator and/or

fitters-fabrication contains specific questions about the number of workers in these job roles, skills

and knowledge of recent school leavers and current workers in these job roles, and about equipment

that is currently used in the company.

The questionnaires consist for the most part of closed questions, resulting in discrete quantitative

information on a range of subjects. Yet the questionnaire also contained open questions, resulting in

qualitative data that has been clustered in the final stages for analysis and presentation here.

A team of four, externally recruited, interviewers guided by labour market analysis experts of the

project, collected the data directly from companies during face-to-face interviews with a company

representative that is familiar with human resources management practices in the company, and

with the shop floor manager supervising CNC setters cum operator and/or fitters-fabrication. The

interviews to administer questionnaire 1 (and 2) took 45 minutes to 1 hour, and the interviews with

the shop floor managers took about 20 minutes per job role (i.e. about 40 minutes for interviewees

that supervised both CNC setters cum operators and fitters-fabrication).

3.2 Selection of companies for the enterprise survey

The identification of companies producing capital goods There are about 25 types of Capital Goods generally included in the Chapters 84 and 85 of ITC (HS)

Codes. A previous study (National Skill Development Corporation, 2012), covered 11 sectors i.e.

Agricultural & Forestry Machinery, Earthmoving, Mining & Construction Machinery, Process & Plant

Machinery, Light Engineering Goods, Machine Tools, Lifting & Handling Equipment, Plastic, Paper &

Rubber Machinery, Power & Electrical Equipment, Textile Machinery, Dies, Moulds & Press tools and

Tools & Gauges. However, the following sub-sectors currently represented in CGSC were covered in

the survey in Maharashtra:

1. Process & Plant Machinery

2. Light Engineering

3. Machine Tools

4. Plastic Machinery

5. Power and electrical

6. Textile Machinery

7. Dies ,Moulds and Press Tools and Gauges

See Table 13 in Appendix 2 for a list of these sub-sectors and the codes for the economic activities in

the National Industrial Classification (All Economic Activities) 2008.

Different approaches have been chosen for the selection of companies for the survey. For companies

in the organised sector, assistance from CGSC member associations was taken to firm up a list of

companies, consisting of the following 450 companies:

• 169 members of the Indian Machine Tool Manufacturers' Association (IMTMA)

• 187 members of the Tool And Gauge Manufacturers Association (TAGMA) of India

• 94 members of the Process Plant & Machinery Industry Association of India (PPMAI)

• 57 other companies

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These 450 companies were distributed over five divisions in Maharashtra, i.e. 272 in Mumbai, 151 in

Pune14 in Aurangabad, 11 in Nashik and 2 in Nagpur.

Due to the nature of the unorganised sector, no register of unorganised sector companies was

available to draw a sample from. That is why companies of the organised sector that took part in the

survey were requested to help identify companies of the unorganised sector.

The response As the response from organised sector companies to the request to participate in the survey was

low, hence instead of using stratified sampling based on division, all companies on the list (except for

two companies in Nagpur) were contacted and asked to participate in the survey. A total of 67

companies agreed to participate (leading to a response rate of 15%).

Due to this limited response, the non-probability (i.e. not random) method of “snowball sampling” or

“referral sampling” was adopted. Company representatives and local industry associations with a

network in the capital goods sector were requested to help identify other (organised or unorganised

sector) companies in the sector and to assist in making appointments, and the interviewers were

able to include additional companies from their personal networks as well. Together, these efforts

resulted in 38 additional companies taking part in the survey.

The response varied from division to division. The help of the local representative in Aurangabad had

a very positive effect on the response rate (see Table 1). And the help of the local representative in

Nashik resulted in 7 additional companies, while the number of companies on the list suggested that

there were only 11 companies in this division. The experience in these two divisions illustrates one of

the lessons learned, i.e. that the request to participate in a survey should come from someone or

from an organisation that is known and trusted by the target group.

Table 1 - Response by division and number of additional participants through recommendation

In the enterprise survey in the automotive industry in Maharashtra (India-EU Skills Development

Project, 2013), the identification of unorganised sector companies was relatively easy, but in the

current survey, the number of companies in the unorganised sector was much lower than the experts

had expected. Off the 67 companies, one of the participating companies on list of organised sector

companies had less than 10 employees and was hence regarded as an unorganised sector company.

Out of the additional 38 companies that were identified, only 8 companies were part of the

unorganised sector, which means that out of the 105 participating companies, 9 are part of the

unorganised sector. Considering the impressive size of the unorganised sector in India, the experts

feel that the chosen approach to identify unorganised sector companies was not suitable. Hence, it is

recommended to conduct further research to establish the share of unorganised sector companies in

the sector as well as their distribution over the different sub-sectors.

in the CGSC list asked to participation number in %

Total 450 448 67 15% 38 105

Aurangabad (HQ Aurangabad) 14 14 8 57% 3 11

Konkan division (HQ Mumbai) 272 272 19 7% 14 33

Nagpur division (HQ Nagpur) 2 0 N.A. N.A. N.A. N.A.

Nashik division (HQ Nashik) 11 11 1 9% 7 8

Pune division (HQ Pune) 151 151 39 26% 14 53

Number of companies: Positive repsonseDivision Additional participants Total participants

16

3.3 Data analysis The interviewers noted the information on the paper questionnaires during the interviews or, in the

case of unorganised sector companies, immediately after the interview. At the end of the day, they

entered the data in the online questionnaires programmed on the Qualtrics software platform (see

www.qualtrics.com). In these online questionnaires, potential mistakes and problems were taken

into account as much as possible. Regular Microsoft software for spreadsheets and databases was

used to clean the data of any remaining mistakes.

The first steps of the analysis involved the clustering and categorisation of the answers to open

questions, the recoding of the sub-sectors based on the description of the activities in the company

and the coding of the job roles. The table in Appendix 3 holds the categorisation of companies in

different sub-sectors: for the companies that were not in the CGSC list, the sub-sector has been

chosen based on the description of the companies’ activities as given by the interviewers. If

necessary, the experts have studied web-sites and promotion materials the interviewers received

during the interview. For 35 companies on the CGSC list, the sub-sector given on the list has

remained the same, while the sub-sector for 32 other companies has been changed according to the

description of the interviewers.

The 105 respondents have mentioned 584 job roles being present in their companies. As similar job

roles can go by different names (for example, fitters-fabrication are likely to do the same work as

fabrication-welders or fitters-welders, etc.), the 584 job roles have been coded into 46 job role

names. Coding has been based on the descriptions given by the respondents and as much as possible

in line with the National Occupational Standards/Qualification Packs (NOS/QPs) that the CGSC has

developed / is currently developing (see www.cgsc.in/qualification_pack.html for more information).

It was not always possible to code the job roles in line with the NOS/QPs, sometimes because the job

roles were not specific for the capital goods sector (like administrative roles or managers) and

sometimes because (especially micro-sized and small companies tend to) have more generalist job

roles, while the NOS/QPs are developed for highly specialised job roles2.

As 46 job role names give too much detail for an analysis of the workforce in the participating 105

companies, the job role names have been merged into 20 job map developed by CGSC (Consultants

Progilence & GlobalPeers, 2014). See Appendix 4 for detailed role categories, using the occupational

information on the job role names, job role categories and the description given by the respondents.

3.4 Limitations of the study The study was designed to address the objectives described in Chapter 1. The findings of the study

can also be useful for other purposes, but whoever wants to use the information should keep the

following in mind:

• Due to limited time and limited participation, the selection method had to be amended as

described above. This means that the findings cannot be generalised for the entire capital

goods sector in Maharashtra.

• Since this was the first time ever enterprise survey to collect information about the skills in

the capital goods sector in Maharashtra, the outcomes cannot be compared to previous

2 One example of a more general job role is the role of helpers. For this job role, no qualification pack has

been developed because Governing Council of the CGSC has decided to reduce the use of helpers on the

shop floor across all companies.

http://www.qualtrics.com/

http://www.cgsc.in/qualification_pack.html

17

results. However, the outcomes can be used as a baseline for similar future studies in

Maharashtra or elsewhere.

• The focus of the study was on assessing the occupational structure, human resources

management practices and skill needs in the capital goods industry, as well as on the

collection of information for the development of curricula for CNC-Setter-cum-operator and

Fitter-Fabrication. The findings and conclusions are more of a qualitative nature, useful for

initiatives to improve or strengthen training of employees or future employees, rather than

forecasting numbers.

• The quality of the findings of any survey depends on the ability of the respondents to

understand questions and give answers that truly reflects their views or circumstances. Also,

it is possible that respondents answer strategically rather than truthfully, for example

because their perception and understanding of the parties involved in the survey and of the

way the data will be used. Of course, these factors have been taken into account when

developing the questionnaires and while implementing the survey, but an effect on the

findings of the survey cannot be ruled out.

• This survey on labour market demand has not been complemented with a similar exercise on

labour market supply. Also, the findings have not been discussed with a “focus group”

consisting of key sector stakeholders. This will be taken as learnings for the next such survey.

Through careful analysis of the results, while taking the limitations into account, the findings of the

survey have helped in describing the current situation in the participating capital goods companies in

Maharashtra. See Chapter 4 for more information.

18

4 Findings

4.1 Characteristics of the participating companies Table 2 illustrates some selected characteristics of the companies participating in the survey. It

shows that the group of 105 companies operate in different sub-sectors, are based in different

divisions, and have different sizes and forms of ownership. Almost one in ten companies is part of

the unorganised sector, but the overall majority is part of the organised sector.

Sub-sector Looking at the table in more detail, it is clear that the participating company mostly operate in two

sub-sectors, i.e. in Machine tools and Dies, moulds and press tools. One in ten produces light

engineering goods and the remaining companies produce process plant equipment, tools and

gauges, power & electrical equipment, textile machinery and material handling and lifting

equipment. To facilitate the analysis, the variables organised/unorganised sector and sub-sector

have been merged into another sub-sector variable, showing that Machine tools and Dies, moulds

and press tools are the biggest with a share of 36% and 26% respectively. Light engineer goods

remains a separate category with 9% and the two new categories are other capital Goods and

unorganised sector companies.

Table 2 - Characteristics of participating companies

Location Half of the companies were based in Pune, almost a third in Mumbai, and 10% and 8% were based in

Aurangabad and Nashik respectively. Compared with the number of companies on the CGSC list (see

Table 1), this means that the companies in Aurangabad and Nashik are over-represented, which is

Company characteristicsNumber of

companies

Share in

total (in %)Company characteristics

Number of

companies

Share in

total (in %)

Total 105 100% Total 105 100%

Organised / unorganised sector Location

Organised sector 96 91% an urban area 98 93%

Unorganised sector 9 9% a rural area 7 7%

Subsector Type of ownership

Dies, Moulds & Press tools 31 30% Sole proprietorship (owned by one person) 15 14%

Light Engineering Goods 11 10% Partnership (owned by two or more people) 22 21%

Machine Tools 41 39% Public corporation 7 7%

Material Handling and Lifting Equipment 1 1% Private corporation 51 49%

Power & Electrical equipment 5 5% Not asked (unorganised sector) / unknown 10 10%

Process Plant Equipment 7 7%

Textile Machinery 3 3% Company Size - investment

Tools & Gauges 6 6% Micro (investment less than Rs 25 Lakh) 1 1%

Small (investment Rs. 25 lakh to Rs. 5 crore) 30 29%

Sub-sector (merged) Medium (investment Rs.5 crore to Rs.10 crore) 31 30%

Dies, Moulds & Press Tools 27 26% Large (investment more than Rs. 10 crore) 33 31%

Light Engineering Goods 9 9% Not asked (unorganised sector) / unknown 10 10%

Machine Tools 38 36%

Other capital Goods 22 21% Company size - number of workers *)

Unorganised sector 9 9% Up to 9 workers 9 9%

10 to 49 workers 43 41%

Division 50 to 249 workers 39 37%

Pune division (HQ Pune) 53 50% 250 workers or more 14 13%

Konkan division (HQ Mumbai) 33 31%

Aurangabad (HQ Aurangabad) 11 10%

Nashik division (HQ Nashik) 8 8% *) Number of workers is the sum of permanent employees, temporary

employees, contract workers and trainees

19

probably the result of the help of the local representatives of the company associations in making

appointments for the interviews. The overall majority is based in urban areas.

Ownership Almost half of the companies are private corporations (whose shareholders cannot sell/buy shares

on a stock exchange), while about one in three companies are owned by one owner or by a

partnership of two or more people. Very few of the organised sector participating companies are

public corporations (i.e. a company owned by shareholders that can sell/buy shares on a stock

exchange).

Company size In terms of investment, all company sizes are present among the participating companies, except for

micro-sized companies. This could be explained by the nature of the sector (i.e. production requiring

relatively expensive machinery), but it is also possible that an under-representation of unorganised

sector companies results in the under-representation of micro-sized companies, i.e. an investment of

up to INR 25 lakh. The share of small, medium and large companies is more or less the same among

the participating companies. Unorganised sector companies have not been asked about investments

and some organised sector companies did not feel comfortable to answer this question.

Another way to define company size is by looking at the number of persons working with the

company. Through the questionnaire for the organised sector, the companies were asked about the

number of permanent employees, the number of temporary employees, workers employed via a

contractor, trainees and the number of vacancies. The company size according to the number of

persons working with the company has been categorised based according to the total number of

persons that work with the company as a permanent employee, temporary employee, contract

worker or trainee. Companies in the unorganised sector were asked only about the number of

employees.

The majority of the organised sector companies had up to 250 workers: 41% had 10 to 49 workers

and 37% had 50 to 249 employees. Only 14 companies had more than 250 persons and 9 companies,

that are part of the unorganised sector, had 9 employees or less.

Comparing the different variables for company size shows that the relation between the number of

workers and investment in the company is not straightforward. There is only one micro-sized

company (in terms of investment) in the group of participants, while there are 9 companies with 9

employees or less. Similarly, large sized companies (with an investment of more than 10 crore) do

not necessarily employ 250 employees or more. See Table 14 in Appendix 2 for a break down of

companies by company size (both in terms of investment and in terms of number of workers) and

sub-sector.

4.2 Composition of the workforce

Number of workers Table 3 holds more detailed information about the workforce in the capital goods sector as a whole

and in the different sub-sectors. The figure shows that all companies had permanent employees, but

that other categories of workers were not present in all of the participating companies: half of the

companies had trainees and about a similar share offered employment to contract workers. Only

14% temporary employees and 6% casual workers were reported. . Four out of every ten companies

(42%) reported vacancies – on average 6.5 per company, which is about 1% of the total number of

workers.

20

Table 3 - Number of workers by category and sub-sector

number % of total Minimum Maximum Average

Total

Permanent employees 105 100% 4 3500 152,8 69%

Temporary employees 15 14% 1 2000 160,9 10%

Contract workers 55 52% 1 522 63,9 15%

Trainees 54 51% 1 400 20,4 5%

Vacancies 44 42% 1 40 6,5 1%

Casual workers 6 6% 2 15 4,7 0%

Total employees *) 105 100% 4 5500 175,8 80%

Total workers *) 105 100% 4 5956 220,0 100%

Total employment *) 105 100% 4 5956 222,7 101%

Number of women 69 66% 1 240 13,5 4%

Number of disabled persons 14 13% 1 8 2,4 0%

Dies, Moulds & Press Tools




Trainees 15 56% 2 120 15,5 10%

Vacancies 14 52% 2 20 6,4 4%

Casual workers 0 0% 0 0 #DIV/0! #DIV/0!

Total employees *) 27 100% 8 211 58,1 66%

Total workers *) 27 100% 11 371 88,4 100%


Number of women 16 59% 1 19 5,3 4%


Light Engineering Goods




Trainees 5 56% 2 400 91,4 16%

Vacancies 5 56% 1 16 7,2 1%


Total employees *) 9 100% 14 1200 216,3 69%

Total workers *) 9 100% 17 1600 313,2 100%


Number of women 7 78% 1 40 10,0 2%


Machine Tools




Trainees 21 55% 1 50 10,5 2%

Vacancies 17 45% 2 40 6,7 1%

Casual workers 0 0% 0 0 #DIV/0! #DIV/0!

Total employees *) 38 100% 6 5500 234,1 88%

Total workers *) 38 100% 11 5956 266,5 100%


Number of women 29 76% 1 90 12,2 4%


Other capital Goods




Trainees 13 34% 2 69 14,8 3%

Vacancies 6 16% 2 25 6,8 1%


Total employees *) 22 58% 5 3778 272,1 78%

Total workers *) 22 58% 20 4369 350,5 100%


Number of women 16 42% 1 240 26,2 5%


Unorganised sector **)

Employees 9 100% 4 9 6,3 100%

Vacancies 2 22% 2 2 2,0 7%


Total employees / workers 9 100% 4 9 6,3 100%


Number of women 1 11% 1 1 1,0 2%

Number of disabled persons 0 0% 0 0 #DIV/0! #DIV/0!

Share in total

workers (in%)

*) The fol lowing defini tions are used in this report:

Tota l employees : the tota l number of permanent employees and temporary employees .

Tota l workers : tota l employees plus the number of contract workers and the number of tra inees

Tota l employment: tota l workers plus tota l vacancies**) Unorganised sector companies were asked for the tota l number of employees , vacancies and casual workers in the last months .

They a lso mentioned the number of women and the number of workers with a disabi l i ty

Sub-sectors and

categories of workers

Number of persons in categoryValid answers (companies)

21

On average, the total number of persons directly employed by the companies (on a permanent or

temporary basis) was 176. Together with the number of contract workers, trainees and casual

workers, the average number of people working with companies in the capital goods sector was 220.

Keeping in view the average number of 6.5 vacancies in the companies, the average number of

positions in the company would be 223.

Almost 70% of the workers (153 out of 220) were permanent employees. The remaining work was

done by contract workers (12%) and temporary employees (10%), and to a lesser extent by trainees

(5%). Only 1% of the positions were vacant at the time of the interview and hardly any work was

done by casual labourers.

Though two-thirds of the companies indicated that women were employed, the reported share of

women in the workforce was 4%. Only 13% of the companies had employed differently abled

persons, but the share of this group in the labour force was negligible. The reported share of women

and differently abled persons was more or less the same in all sub-sectors.

The average number of workers per company differed between the sub-sectors. Companies

producing dies, moulds and press tools had relatively fewer workers compared to the other sub-

sectors: while the overall average number of workers was 220, the average number of workers in

companies producing dies, moulds and press tools was 88. Also, the share of (permanent and

temporary) employees was smaller than average (66% versus 80%) in this sector, which was

compensated by a higher share of contract workers and trainees. Lastly, the dies, moulds and press

tools sub-sector had a relatively high share of vacancies, i.e. 4% compared to 1% on average.

The workforce of the biggest sub-sector Machine tools in this survey was bigger than average: on

average a company producing machine tools had 267 workers. The number of permanent employees

was about average, but a bigger than average share (20%) consisted of temporary employees while

the number of contract workers and trainees was much lower than average. Though 45% of the

companies reported vacancies, the number of vacancies was relatively low.

Participating companies that produce light engineering goods were a bit bigger than average. As only

9 companies from this sub-sector took part in the survey, no conclusions could be drawn about the

distribution of workers over different categories. However, the figures suggest that, though 5 out of

9 companies reported vacancies, the share of vacancies in the total workforce was relatively low.

Companies producing other capital goods had the largest average workforce and offered work to a

comparatively large number of permanent employees and contract workers. They employed a

relatively small share of temporary employees and trainees. Only 16% of these companies reported

vacancies, which is very little compared to the average of 42% companies reporting vacancies during

the survey.

Due to its definition, the number of workers in the participating unorganised sector companies was

low, i.e. 6 persons on average. The number of vacancies and casual workers seemed higher than

average, but this is be based on the answers of only 2 and 1 companies respectively, which is not

sufficient to support this conclusion.

The number of workers in different categories by division is presented in Table 15 in Appendix 2. The

table shows that relatively many companies in Pune had trainees and vacancies and that a fairly large

share of these companies employed women. However, the share of trainees and women in the work

force did not deviate much from the other companies and the number of vacancies was also not

higher than average, which means that the numbers of trainees, vacancies and women in the

22

companies was small. Companies based in Mumbai had fewer (permanent and temporary)

employees and many Mumbai-based companies worked with staff provided by contractors. Very few

companies reported having vacancies and not so many companies had trainees. However, companies

that had vacancies and worked with trainees had a relatively high number of them. The number of

participating companies in Aurangabad and Nashik was small. These companies seemed to have

relatively few temporary employees and contract workers, which was compensated by a higher share

of trainees in the workforce.

Table 16 in Appendix 2 holds information about the number of workers in different categories by

company size in terms of investment. It shows that the share of permanent employees was high in all

company sizes, varying from 68% to 75% of the total number of workers. The number of temporary

employees in small and medium-sized companies was much lower than in large companies. On the

other hand, small companies worked more often with contractors, which resulted in a relatively high

share of contract workers in small companies. Also, small companies were more likely to have

vacancies than larger companies and the number of vacancies per company was also higher than

average.

Comparatively many medium sized companies had temporary employees, but the average number of

temporary per company was not so big. The lower share of temporary employees in the work force

was compensated by a higher share of permanent employees and trainees. Large companies stand

out because a large majority of the companies (79%) worked with contractors.

Table 17 in Appendix 2 contains information of the different categories of workers by company size

in terms of workers. The information in this table is more or less in line with the findings mentioned

above: small companies had a relatively low share of temporary employees in the workforce, which

was compensated by a higher share of permanent employees and contract workers. Also, more small

companies reported vacancies and the number of vacancies was relatively high. Medium sized

companies also reported a lower share of temporary employees than bigger companies, which was

compensated by a higher share of permanent employees and trainees. Fewer medium sized

companies reported vacancies than large companies, but the number of vacancies per company is

higher. The overall majority of companies employing 250 workers or more worked with contractors

(93%) and had trainees in the company (79%). Relatively few large companies reported vacancies.

Table 16 and Table 17 show that the more employees companies had, the more likely they were to

hire women. Nevertheless, the share of women in the work force was higher in medium sized and

small companies. As mentioned before, the share of differently abled workers in the work force was

negligible in all categories of companies, i.e. there was no difference between sub-sectors, divisions

or company sizes.

Most common job roles As mentioned in the methodology chapter, the participating companies mentioned 584 job role

titles, which have been recoded to 46 job role names and 20 broader job role categories. Table 4

contains the breakdown of the job roles mentioned by different job role categories and by company

size, while these figures are presented by sub-sector in Table 5.

Table 4 - Job roles mentioned by job role category and distribution by company size (in terms of workers)

TotalUp to 9

workers

10 to 49

workers

50 to 249

workers

250 workers or

more

Total job roles mentioned 584 584 27 220 236 101

Average number job roles mentioned per company 5,6 5,6 3,0 5,1 6,1 7,2

Design roles: 110 19% 7% 19% 23% 12%

CNC Programmer 32 5% 4% 5% 7% 2%

Designer / draughtsman 78 13% 4% 13% 16% 10%

Machinist roles: 136 23% 30% 28% 19% 21%

CNC operator 40 7% 0% 10% 6% 6%

CNC setter cum Operator 17 3% 4% 2% 3% 4%

Conventional machine operator 63 11% 26% 13% 7% 11%

Operator and/or setter (EDM) 16 3% 0% 4% 3% 0%

Production Roles 149 26% 22% 22% 28% 30%

Assembly - Fitter – Electrical & electronic 30 5% 11% 4% 6% 5%

Assembly - Fitter – Mechanical / Maintenance 29 5% 0% 5% 5% 6%

Assembly - Tool and Die Maker 14 2% 4% 3% 1% 4%

Component Fabrication and Preparation 13 2% 0% 2% 1% 6%

Component Fabrication and Preparation - Fabrication

Fitter

19 3% 7% 2% 4% 4%

Quality, Managerial and Supervisory roles 44 8% 0% 6% 11% 5%

Welding and Related Roles 18 3% 4% 2% 2% 8%

Painting and Coating Roles 7 1% 0% 2% 1% 0%

Quality Roles 17 3% 0% 4% 3% 2%

Helper 41 7% 19% 9% 6% 4%

Projects and Planning Roles 70 12% 4% 11% 12% 16%

Marketing, Research and Service Roles 18 3% 0% 2% 4% 4%

Administrative Roles 11 2% 15% 1% 1% 1%

Other (production) Roles 7 1% 0% 0% 1% 3%

Distribution over job role category by company sizeJob roles

mentionedJob role category

24

Table 5 - Job roles mentioned by job role category and distribution by sub-sector

TotalDies, Moulds

& Press Tools

Light Engineering

Goods

Machine

Tools

Other Capital

Goods

Unorganised

sector

Total job roles mentioned 584 584 158 60 216 123 27

Average number job roles mentioned per company 5,6 5,6 5,9 6,7 5,7 5,6 3,0

Design roles: 110 19% 24% 13% 20% 15% 7%

CNC Programmer 32 5% 9% 0% 6% 3% 4%

Designer / draughtsman 78 13% 15% 13% 15% 11% 4%

Machinist roles: 136 23% 30% 22% 26% 9% 30%

CNC operator 40 7% 11% 8% 6% 4% 0%

CNC setter cum Operator 17 3% 3% 0% 5% 0% 4%

Conventional machine operator 63 11% 11% 10% 13% 4% 26%

Operator and/or setter (EDM) 16 3% 6% 3% 2% 1% 0%

Production Roles 149 26% 25% 32% 22% 30% 22%

Assembly - Fitter – Electrical & electronic 30 5% 3% 3% 6% 7% 11%

Assembly - Fitter – Mechanical / Maintenance 29 5% 4% 10% 6% 3% 0%

Assembly - Tool and Die Maker 14 2% 6% 5% 0% 0% 4%

Component Fabrication and Preparation 13 2% 1% 8% 1% 3% 0%

Component Fabrication and Preparation -

Fabrication Fitter19 3% 1% 2% 3% 7% 7%

Quality, Managerial and Supervisory roles 44 8% 9% 3% 6% 11% 0%

Welding and Related Roles 18 3% 0% 3% 2% 8% 4%

Painting and Coating Roles 7 1% 1% 0% 2% 1% 0%

Quality Roles 17 3% 1% 3% 4% 5% 0%

Helper 41 7% 8% 3% 6% 7% 19%

Projects and Planning Roles 70 12% 8% 18% 11% 18% 4%

Marketing, Research and Service Roles 18 3% 1% 2% 5% 4% 0%

Administrative Roles 11 2% 1% 3% 0% 2% 15%

Other (production) Roles 7 1% 1% 0% 1% 2% 0%

Total job roles mentioned

Distribution over job role category by sub-sector

Total job roles

mentioned

Companies mentioned on average 5,6 common job roles. Table 4 shows that the average number of

job roles per company corresponded with the company size in terms of number of workers, which

makes sense as big companies are more likely to have relatively specialised positions while workers

in smaller companies will need to do these tasks with a smaller number of people, leading to more

generalist positions. Table 5 shows that the companies producing light engineering goods mentioned

the largest number of job roles, i.e. 6.7 job roles on average. With 5.9 most common job roles per

company, positions in companies producing dies, moulds and press tools are also a bit more

specialised than in other companies.

Of course the nature of the most common job roles is more interesting than the number of most

common job roles per company. The distribution of the job role categories in the two middle size

categories -i.e. small companies with 10 to 49 workers and medium sized companies with 50 to 249

workers- is more or less similar, though the share of small companies mentioning CNC operators as a

common job role is relatively high and a higher than average number of small companies mentioned

having conventional machine operators on the work floor (see Table 4). Relatively many medium

sized companies indicated having design roles, and quality, managerial and supervisory roles, but

relatively few participants mentioned having conventional machine operators. Lastly, large

companies (with 250 employees or more) mentioned projects and planning roles and job roles

related to welding as common job roles more often than the other companies. Design roles are more

common in small and medium-sized companies than in micro-sized and large companies.

Analysis of the data shows that companies producing dies, moulds and press tools mentioned design

roles, machinist roles (i.e. CNC operators and operator and/or setter (EDM)), and tool and die makers

more often than other companies. Companies producing light engineering goods also mentioned tool

and die makers more than average and reported more machinist roles, design roles and projects and

planning roles as well. Machine tools producing companies did not deviate from the total distribution

of job roles very much, but mentioned relatively often CNC setters cum operators and marketing,

research and service roles. Companies producing other capital good mentioned common job roles

such as component fabrication and preparation (including fabrication fitters), welding and related job

roles, and quality roles, but relatively few machinist roles. A relatively big share of the job roles

mentioned by unorganised sector companies are directly related to production, i.e. machinist roles

(especially conventional machine operators), production roles (excluding the quality, managerial and

supervisory roles) and helpers. Helpers are also mentioned by organised sector companies, but the

number of helpers seems to decrease if the company size increases.

In Table 18 in Appendix 2, job role categories and names are broken down by the associated

qualification level mentioned by the interviewees. The table makes clear that the associated

education level of machinist, production, and welding and related roles, was generally class 8 to 12

and (ITI or CGSC) certificate level. Design, quality, project and planning, marketing, research and

service roles are associated mostly with degree level and to a lesser extend with diploma level.

The number of workers per job role category is presented by sub-sector in Table 6. It shows that six

job role categories account for more than eight thousand (i.e. two thirds of the) workers in the most

common job roles in the participating companies. These job role categories are:

Design Roles - Designer / draughtsman - 1.433 workers (12%)

Machinist Roles - CNC operator - 1.323 workers (11%)

Machinist Roles - Conventional machine operator - 1.063 workers (9%)

Production Roles - Assembly - Fitter – Mechanical / Maintenance - 1.039 workers (8%)

Welding and Related Roles - 1.093 workers (9%)

26

Projects and Planning Roles - 2.204 workers (18%)

Table 6 - Number of workers per job role category by sub-sector

There were significant differences in the composition of the workforce in the different sub-sectors.

For example, in the unorganised sector, the smallest sub-sector in this survey, only two job role

categories stood out, i.e. conventional machine operators and helpers. In contrast, in the biggest

sub-sector in this survey, Machine Tools, the number of workers in four to six different job role

categories was substantially higher than in others. These were CNC operators, fitters – mechanical /

maintenance, designers / draughtsmen, and projects and planning roles. Also important in this sub-

sector were CNC setters cum operators and conventional machine operators. In companies

producing dies, moulds and press tools, the most common job role category was conventional

machine operating roles, followed by designers / draughtsmen, CNC operators and operators and/or

setters of electro discharge machines. An (unlikely) big share of the work force in the sub-sector Light

Engineering Goods consisted of persons in project and planning roles and companies also employed

a relatively big number of workers in CNC operators and component fabrication and preparation job

roles. Major job role categories in companies producing other capital goods were welding and

related roles followed by fabrication fitters, designers / draughtsmen and projects and planning

roles.

Table 7 contains information about the distribution of different worker categories over the different

job role categories. It shows that the distribution of permanent employees over the different job role

categories was more or less the same as the average distribution, most likely because it was the

biggest group in the total number of workers. However, this was not the case for all job role

categories. The table shows that almost six out of ten temporary employees were welder or had

related positions and one in five temporary employees worked as fabrication fitters. Less likely

positions for temporary employees were project planning roles and fitter mechanical / maintenance.

Dies, Moulds

& Press Tools

Light Engineering

Goods

Machine

Tools

Other Capital

Goods

Unorganised

sector

Total 12.356 1.717 1.890 5.626 3.070 53

Design roles:

CNC Programmer 1% 3% 0% 1% 1% 2%

Designer / draughtsman 12% 13% 2% 13% 14% 2%

Machinist roles:

CNC operator 11% 13% 9% 15% 3% 0%

CNC setter cum Operator 5% 3% 0% 11% 0% 6%

Conventional machine operator 9% 18% 5% 10% 2% 34%

Operator and/or setter (EDM) 2% 12% 0% 1% 0% 0%

Production Roles:

Assembly - Fitter – Electrical & electronic 3% 1% 2% 4% 4% 6%

Assembly - Fitter – Mechanical / Maintenance 8% 8% 5% 14% 1% 0%

Assembly - Tool and Die Maker 2% 7% 4% 0% 0% 9%

Component Fabrication and Preparation 2% 1% 7% 1% 1% 0%

Component Fabrication and Preparation - Fabrication Fitter 5% 3% 0% 2% 15% 4%

Quality, Managerial and Supervisory roles 2% 4% 0% 2% 3% 0%

Welding and Related Roles 9% 0% 1% 6% 25% 2%

Painting and Coating Roles 0% 0% 0% 1% 0% 0%

Quality Roles 1% 0% 1% 1% 1% 0%

Helper 4% 4% 1% 3% 7% 25%

Projects and Planning Roles 18% 3% 61% 12% 11% 2%

Marketing, Research and Service Roles 3% 1% 0% 4% 4% 0%

Administrative Roles 1% 0% 0% 0% 5% 9%

Other (production) Roles 2% 7% 0% 0% 3% 0%

Job role category Total

Number of workers distribution over job role *) categories

*) Number of workers i s the total of permanent employees , termporary employees , contract workers and tra inees

27

Contract workers were unlikely to work in project planning roles and as designer / draughtsmen, but

the share of contract workers in the job role categories conventional machine operators and helpers

was higher than in other job role categories. Almost six out of ten trainees were employed in a

project planning role.

The number of vacancies for CNC operators and project and planning roles was relatively high

compared to the number of workers in these job role categories. The number of vacancies for

welders and related roles and for fitter – mechanical / maintenance was relatively low.

Not many women worked in the most common job roles. The ones that did, were mostly employed

as designers / draughtsmen, in projects and planning roles and in other (production) roles. Women

that were directly involved in the production process worked mostly as CNC setter cum operator.

Table 7 - Number of workers in differnt categories of workers by job role category

4.3 Employee turnover and recruitment & selection of new employees

Employee turnover and recruitment problems A quarter of the companies reported that the turnover of workers in the current year was higher

than in the previous year, while 3 out of 10 reported that the employee turnover was lower (see

Table 8). Companies reporting a higher employee turnover than last year had fewer workers than the

other companies, i.e. 78.5 on average, while companies reporting that the employee turnover was

the same as the year before have more employees, i.e. 307 employees on average. Companies

reporting a higher turnover this year have more vacancies than other companies.

A challenge faced by smaller companies is that employees prefer to work with larger companies and

leave as soon as the opportunity arises. This could be one of the reasons for a higher employee

turnover in smaller companies.

Total

workers

Permanent

employees

Temporary

employees

Contract

workersTrainees

Total 12.356 9391 362 1719 884 186 190

Design roles:

CNC Programmer 1% 1% 1% 2% 2% 4% 0%

Designer / draughtsman 12% 14% 3% 3% 8% 12% 19%

Machinist roles:

CNC operator 11% 13% 4% 3% 6% 24% 3%

CNC setter cum Operator 5% 6% 0% 4% 0% 0% 9%

Conventional machine operator 9% 8% 3% 16% 5% 10% 1%

Operator and/or setter (EDM) 2% 2% 0% 1% 4% 0% 0%

Production Roles

Assembly - Fitter – Electrical & electronic 3% 3% 1% 5% 2% 2% 5%

Assembly - Fitter – Mechanical / Maintenance 8% 9% 0% 8% 1% 2% 8%

Assembly - Tool and Die Maker 2% 1% 0% 3% 1% 8% 3%

Component Fabrication and Preparation 2% 1% 1% 5% 0% 2% 1%

Component Fabrication and Preparation - Fabrication Fitter 5% 4% 22% 8% 3% 2% 0%

Quality, Managerial and Supervisory roles 2% 3% 0% 2% 1% 2% 6%

Welding and Related Roles 9% 7% 59% 13% 4% 0% 0%

Painting and Coating Roles 0% 0% 1% 0% 0% 1% 1%

Quality Roles 1% 1% 0% 0% 0% 1% 0%

Helper 4% 1% 2% 18% 0% 0% 1%

Projects and Planning Roles 18% 18% 1% 1% 58% 27% 27%

Marketing, Research and Service Roles 3% 4% 0% 1% 3% 3% 5%

Administrative Roles 1% 2% 2% 0% 0% 0% 3%

Other (production) Roles 2% 1% 0% 6% 2% 1% 8%

Number of workers distribution over job role *) categories Number

of

vacancies

Number

of

women

Job role category

*) Number of workers i s the total of permanent employees , termporary employees , contract workers and tra inees

28

Table 8 - Employee turnover compared to last year by sector, division, average number of workers and vacancies

Two out of five companies (40%) reported that the turnover was higher for the staff in one or more

of the most common job roles than in other job roles, and almost 6 out of 10 (58%) reported

recruitment problems for one or more of the most important job roles.

On average, a higher turnover was reported for 11% of the most common job roles and for 22% of

the most common job roles recruitment problems were reported. In Table 9, the figures are broken

down by job role category. Skills problems were reported for 10% of the most common job roles.

The table shows that most problems are reported for CNC operator job roles. The participating

companies mentioned that there is a higher turnover, more recruitment problems and more skill

problems for CNC operators than for other job roles. This can probably partly be explained by the

fact that CNC operators are one of the biggest categories of the most common job roles (see Table

6). More than average recruitment problems were reported for job role categories like tool and die

makers, conventional machine operators, welding and related roles and for marketing, research and

service roles.

Unfortunately, the nature of skill problems was specified by only a limited number of companies. See

Table 20 in Appendix 2 for more information.

higher the same lower No answer

Total 105 25% 42% 30% 3%

Sector

Dies, Moulds & Press Tools 27 15% 48% 33% 4%

Light Engineering Goods 9 22% 33% 44% 0%

Machine Tools 38 34% 47% 16% 3%

Other capital Goods 22 23% 32% 41% 5%

Unorganised sector 9 22% 33% 44% 0%

Division

Pune division (HQ Pune) 53 19% 58% 21% 2%

Konkan division (HQ Mumbai) 33 33% 18% 45% 3%

Aurangabad (HQ Aurangabad) 11 36% 18% 36% 9%

Nashik division (HQ Nashik) 8 13% 63% 25% 0%

Average number of workers *) 220,0 78,5 306,9 224,9 119,3

Average number of vacancies 2,7 3,7 3,5 1,0 0,7

*) Total number of workers is the sum of (permanent and temporary) employees, contract

workers, trainees and casual workers

Total

(N)Sector / Division

Turnover compared to last year (in % of total):

29

Table 9 – Reported issues concerning turnover, recruitment and skill problems for the most common job roles

Seventy-seven companies (73%) reported problem in retaining and/or recruiting workers for the

most common job roles. Fifteen companies did not specify the nature of the problems, but the

remaining 63 companies gave one or more reasons and/or explained the problems in more detail.

Their answers are summarised in Figure 1.

The most reported recruitment problem was the non-availability of suitable candidates in the labour

market. Other reported problems were that candidates lack (technical) skills or knowledge and a few

companies mentioned that the candidates lack soft skills like creativity and problem solving skills. A

small number of companies reported that they cannot compete with the salaries offered by other

companies. Two participants thought that workers with the right qualifications prefer to work

outside India, and another respondent mentioned that the turnover was especially high among

workers at diploma and degree level.

Higher than

average turnover

Recruitment

problems

Skill

problems

Total 584 11% 22% 10%

Design roles:

CNC Programmer 32 9% 31% 13%

Designer / draughtsman 78 5% 19% 8%

Machinist roles:

CNC operator 40 33% 48% 20%

CNC setter cum Operator 17 12% 18% 6%

Conventional machine operator 63 14% 35% 16%

Operator and/or setter (EDM) 16 13% 25% 13%

Production Roles:

Assembly - Fitter – Electrical & electronic 30 13% 23% 7%

Assembly - Fitter – Mechanical / Maintenance 29 10% 17% 7%

Assembly - Tool and Die Maker 14 7% 43% 29%

Component Fabrication and Preparation 13 15% 23% 23%

Component Fabrication and Preparation -

Fabrication Fitter 19 0% 21% 0%

Quality, Managerial and Supervisory roles 44 0% 7% 0%

Welding and Related Roles 18 17% 33% 6%

Painting and Coating Roles 7 29% 29% 0%

Quality Roles 17 12% 0% 0%

Helper 41 10% 15% 12%

Projects and Planning Roles 70 6% 11% 7%

Marketing, Research and Service Roles 18 17% 33% 17%

Administrative Roles 11 9% 0% 0%

Other (production) Roles 7 14% 14% 0%

Reported issues

(in % of number of times mentioned): Number of times

mentioned (N)Job role category

30

Figure 1 - Reasons for higher turnover and recruitment problems (in number of companies) *)

*) Companies could refuse to answer or give more than one answer, so the number of reasons can

differ from the number of companies.

Companies have taken different measures to cope with the higher turnover and/or recruitment

problems (see Figure 2). The most common measures were financial, for example by paying salaries

that are in line with the experience of workers and with the demand in the market. Others provide

loans to employees or give bonuses and other financial incentives.

Figure 2 - Approach to higher turnover and recruitment problems (in number of companies) *)

*) Companies could refuse to answer or give more than one answer, so the number of approaches

can differ from the number of companies.

Companies also reported taking non-financial measures. Some companies organised social events

like birthday celebrations, get-togethers and trips for employees, while others offered workers

medical facilities, meals, library with books in the local language or even stress management training.

Three companies found a positive and open working environment important, whereas four

31

companies mention “other approaches”3. Lastly, six companies mentioned the training of existing

and new workers as a way to retain workers as well as to overcome recruitment problems.

Recruitment methods and criteria Participants were asked to explain how their company recruits new employees. Ther responses are

presented in Figure 3 and further broken down by sub-sector, division and company size in Table 21,

Table 22, Tabel 23 in Appendix 2.

Figure 3 - Methods to recruit new employees by company size (in terms of number of workers)

Informal recruitment methods were used most: more than six out of ten companies recruited new

employees through word of mouth, i.e. via the company’s network, the network of family, friends

and current employees, etc. More than a third recruited walk-ins and people that sent an open

application (i.e. applying in general, not for a specific position that was advertised). Almost a third of

the companies recruit via training institutes. This could be formal campus recruitment, but could also

be more informal, i.e. through internships, notice boards in schools, etc.

Concerning the more formal recruitment methods: about 30% of the companies used advertisements

in newspapers, on radio or on TV and recruitment via online advertisements was used by almost as

many companies. Recruitment via the employment exchange is not popular: only 7% of the

companies mentioned this as a recruitment method. Obviously, the choice for one or more “formal

recruitment methods” would depend on whether potential candidates are likely to use these media.

For example, older workers are less likely to use the internet, while young persons may be less likely

to read newspapers. Likewise, positions that require a higher qualification may be advertised online,

while recruitment for positions that require an ITI certificate could require a different approach.

3 Including good working circumstances (green manufacturing), direct interaction of the company with

schools, a learn and earn scheme and regular promotions of staff.

32

Half of the companies

indicated using “other”

recruitment methods.

Analysing their open

answers showed (see

Figure 18 in Appendix

2) that about one in

ten companies

recruited workers by

putting up

advertisements on

notice boards or on the

company gate (see

Picture 1) and an

almost similar share of

companies recruited

via placement or

consultancy agencies.

Figure 3 clearly shows

that companies of

different sizes use different recruitment methods. Though all companies prefer informal recruitment

methods, the preference is stronger among micro-sized (9 workers or less) and small companies (10

to 49 workers). Typical for small companies is that they are more likely to use advertisements in

newspapers, on radio and TV than larger or smaller companies. Medium-sized (50 to 249 workers or

more) and large companies (250 workers or more) recruit more often via a training institute and via

advertisements on internet. There are no major differences between the other sub-sectors (see

Table 21 in Appendix 2) or between the different divisions (see Table 22 in Appendix 2).

The strong preference for informal recruitment methods and the small share of companies that

recruit workers through an employment exchange are similar to the findings in the enterprise survey

in Maharashtra’s automotive industry (India-EU Skills Development Project, 2013). The authors

mentioned that this was in line with international findings. They explained: “the World Association of

Public Employment Agencies has highlighted that the majority of jobs worldwide are filled through

word of mouth” and that “only 9% of jobs are filled through public and private employment

agencies”.

Companies were not only asked how the potential candidates are found (i.e. recruitment), but also

about the criteria that candidates should meet (i.e. selection criteria). Their answers are summarised

in Figure 4 and broken down according to sub-sector, division and company size in Table 24, Table 25

and Table 26 in Appendix 2respectively).

Three selection criteria were mentioned most, i.e. prior work experience, the completion of a

certificate, diploma or degree, and the behaviour of potential employees during the interview.

Furthermore, three out of ten companies made selections based on the outcome of a written or

practical test and an almost similar share used references of previous employers. Very few

companies took the family background and the applicant’s sex into account and a quarter of the

company used other selection criteria.

Picture 1 - Informal "other" recruitment methods: putting up advertisements on notice boards or on the company gate

33

Figure 4 illustrates that selection was done differently in companies of different sizes. Having a

certificate, diploma or degree was not considered important in the micro-sized companies (with 9

workers or less) but was used as a selection criterion in practically all large companies. Similarly,

micro-sized companies did not use a (written or practical) test, which was more popular among the

medium-sized and large companies. In contrast, micro-sized companies preferred to select new

employees based on prior work experience and, to a lesser extent, references of previous employers.

Such references were important for large companies, but not so much for small and medium sized

companies. Companies of all sizes took the behaviour of the potential employee during the interview

into account during the selection process.

Figure 4 - Criteria used for the selection of workers

A quarter of the companies, especially medium sized and large companies, mentioned other

selection criteria. Other criteria mentioned included the applicant’s school grades, the willingness of

the applicant to work under harsh conditions, specific skills, the ability of the applicant to complete a

specific in-company training and the applicant’s place of residence (i.e. close to work).

Figure 5 - Criteria for the selection of contractors

34

Contract workers are employees that are seconded by their (legal) employer, i.e. a contractor, to

other companies. Fifty-five of the companies in this survey have contract workers, and these

companies were asked how they select a suitable contractor. Their answers have been summarised.

in Figure 5. It is obvious that the most important criterion was the experience of the contractor in the

sector, followed by previous experience of the company with the contractor. A smaller number of

companies mentioned the quality of the workers provided by the contractor and references of other

companies. The contractor’s background, and the contractor’s fees were less important selection

criteria. Eleven companies (i.e. 20%) chose the option “other”, but most did not explain what other

criteria they used. Fourteen companies (i.e. 25%) indicated that their contract workers were not

recruited via a contractor but in a different way.

The selection of the contract workers was usually a combined effort of the contractors and

companies: contractors made an initial selection of the candidates for an interview with the

company. The company would then select the contract workers they considered suitable for the

work.

Almost half of the participating

companies recruited employees

from all over India (see Figure

6), while about a third preferred

workers living near the

company. The remaining

companies limited their

searches to the state of

Maharashtra.

Some companies explained that

for lower level jobs, recruitment

was mostly directed at the

district or block in which the

company is located. Other

companies would welcome anyone to come and work with the company as long as he or she was

willing to move to city in which the company is based. Some participants preferred workers from

other states, because they considered these workers to be especially flexible, hardworking, reliable,

and because these workers had fewer family obligations they would be available for work at any

time. Workers recruited from other states would get 2 months leave per year to visit their families

and spend the remaining 10 months working for the company. In one case, the respondents

preferred recruiting graduates from good quality training institutes in specific states.

Figure 7 - Would you recruit under- or overqualified employees?

A big share of the

participants (43%)

preferred to recruit

workers with the right

qualifications, but an even

bigger share (54%) of

companies would recruit

underqualified workers. In

contrast, very few

companies would recruit

Figure 6 – Where do you recruit new employees?

35

overqualified staff (see Figure 7 and Table 30 in Appendix 2).

There are clear differences between companies of different sizes. Larger companies preferred to

employee workers with right qualifications, but micro-sized companies (with 9 workers or less)

preferred candidates that are under-qualified. Preferences of small and medium-sized companies or

less extreme, but follow the same trend. It seems that the bigger the company was, the stronger its

preference for workers with the right qualifications.

The preference of employers to recruit staff with the right-qualifications will depend on the

remuneration, the level of specialisation required for the job role and on the situation on the labour

market. The reluctance of employers to work with over-qualified staff could result from the

expectation that over-qualified workers will demand higher salaries or that they will quickly find

other (better) jobs. On the other hand, working with underqualified workers has the advantage that

salaries tend to be lower than for workers with the right qualifications and that these employees can

trained exactly according to the employer’s requirements. And though some specialised job-roles

simply cannot be done by someone without the right qualifications other more general jobs could

even be done better by overqualified workers. One could conclude that the preference of smaller

companies for underqualified workers will result from employers to keep labour costs low, to secure

their labour force (underqualified workers have fewer opportunities in the labour market) and to

train workers according to their specific needs. The more specialised nature of the position in larger

companies would be an explanation for the preference of larger companies for workers with the

right qualification – apart from the fact that larger companies can choose from a larger pool of

interested candidates because bigger companies generally offer better salaries, career perspectives,

and working environment. These factors will need to be taken into account when developing

initiatives concerning recognition of prior learning.

Participants have indicated the share of women and disabled workers in their current workforce (see

paragraph 4.2), but have also been asked to indicate for which most common job roles they would

consider women and disabled workers. Their answers are summarised in Figure 8 and in Table 31 in

Appendix 2. Just over half of the participants would consider recruiting women for one or more of

the most common job roles and 30% would consider recruiting disabled persons. There were no

major differences between the different divisions and between the different sub-sectors, except for

companies in the unorganised sector, who were less willing to recruit women and not willing at all to

recruit disabled persons. Though the reason for the companies’ preferences has not officially been

part of the questionnaire, several respondents explained during the interview that they felt that the

company was not a suitable environment for women or disabled persons, because the work can be

dangerous, the workplace not clean and because physical strength is important.

The companies that would consider women for the most common job roles, were asked to specify

for which job roles they might recruit women and disabled persons. Respondents mentioned 18% of

the most common job roles for women and 8% of the most common job roles for disabled people

(see Figure 8). Job role categories mentioned most for women are designer / draughtsman, CNC

Programmer, CNC (setter cum) operator, and Quality, Managerial and Supervisory roles. Fewer job

role categories were mentioned for disabled people, i.e. CNC Programmer, designer / draughtsman

and CNC operator. Less mentioned, but more than other job role categories, were assembly – fitter

positions (electrical & electronic and mechanical / maintenance). The information about the

willingness to consider women and differently abled persons should be used as career guidance

information. Women and disabled persons considering taking part in training for certain job roles will

need to be aware of the reluctance of employers to consider them for the associated job roles.

Figure 8 - Most common job roles for which women and disabled persons would be considered

Figure 9 - Rating of the current and last year’s economic situation

4.4 Opinions on and expectations for the economic situation of the sector

Current and last year’s economic situation Employers generally know best what goes on in the sector. That is why the participants have been

asked about their opinion of the current economic situation and their expectations for future

developments. The assessments of the current economic situation and of last year’s economic

situation are summarised in Figure 9 above.

Respondents were not positive about the current economic situation. Though a quarter of the

respondents felt that the current situation was good, almost a third of the respondents said that the

current economic situation is bad or very bad . Two out of five respondents rated the current

economic situation as average. Yet there were some differences between the different sub-sectors.

For example, representatives of companies producing dies, moulds and press tools were relatively

positive: almost a quarter rated the economic situation as good and almost half of them felt that the

economic situation was average. In contrast, representatives of the unorganised sector were in a

very negative mood: the overall majority rated the situation as bad or very bad. There were not

many differences in opinion between the remaining sectors. Looking at the different divisions, it is

apparent that the mood in Konkan was more negative than elsewhere and that the share of

companies that felt the current economic situation was good is bigger in Pune than in the other

divisions. Lastly, the information in Figure 9 suggests that the size of the company affected the rating

of the current economic situation: the larger the company, the bigger the share of respondents that

rated the situation as “good” and the smaller the share of respondents that rated the economic

situation as bad or very bad.

When asked about last year’s economic situation, more than a third of the respondents said that last

year was worse than this year and 45 % said that the situation was more or less the same. Only one

in ten respondents felt that last year was better than this year. Figure 9 shows that this is not

consistent for all categories of companies. A relatively large share of companies in Konkan felt that

last year’s economic situation was worse than this year. The same was true for companies producing

light engineering goods and for companies in the unorganised sector.

More interesting than the opinion about last year’s economic was better or worse than the current

situation is whether companies have reduced or increased their workforce in the last year. The

answers of the respondents have been presented in Table 10. The table shows that 10% of the

participating companies had fewer workers than last year, on average 15 workers less. Yet 24% of the

participating companies currently have more workers than last year, on average 15 workers more.

The remaining 61% report having the same number of workers as last year. This information means

that the total number of workers in the participating companies has increased (by 0.9%) in the last

year. Considering the relatively small number of companies participating in the survey and the non-

probability sampling as described in the methodology chapter, we cannot conclude that the size of

the reported changes is representative for the total sector, but the direction of the change may well

be in line with the developments in other companies.

Some groups of companies reported substantially better figures than average. For example, 30% of

the companies producing dies, moulds and press tools had more workers than last year and only 11%

of the companies had fewer workers. Considering the average reported size of the changes and the

average number of workers, the workforce in the participating companies that produce dies, moulds

and press tools has increased in the last year by 4.7%. Likewise, a relatively big share of the

companies based in Konkan division reported an increase of the workforce and very few companies

report a decrease, resulting in an increase of 4.6%. Lastly, the workforce of medium-sized companies

39

in the survey has increased by 3.6% in the last year, which was the result of to a higher share of

companies reporting relatively big increases and to the fact that companies that reported a decrease

in the last year, reported a smaller decrease than average.

Table 10 - Changes in the size of the workforce in the last year

Respondents that reported a change in the workforce were asked if the most common job roles were

affected by this change. Table 33 in Appendix 2 lists the reported changes per job role. As only 34%

(i.e. 36) of the participating companies reported a change in the size of the workforce, the table

includes information about 85 job roles.

Relatively big increases are mentioned for the job role categories CNC operators and for assembly -

fitter – mechanical / maintenance: in the companies that reported an increase, the total number of

workers in these job role increased by 10 and 11.3 on average respectively. Smaller but still

substantial (average) increases are reported for marketing, research and service roles (6.0 per

company) and for assembly - tool and die maker (5.8 per company). Decreases were reported for

quality roles (-5.0 per company), helpers (-4.5 per company) and for component fabrication and

preparation (-1.5 per company).

The explanation for the reported increases and decreases is not clear. The reported increase in the

number of CNC operators seems to be in line with ongoing automation of the production. The

decrease of workers in quality roles could be the result of the ambition to produce more efficiently –

possibly also because of ongoing automation of the production process. Yet the decrease of helpers

(working especially in the unorganised sector) does not fit with the finding that last year’s economic

situation in the unorganised sector was worse than the current situation, unless the companies did

the same

% of

companies

% of

companies

Average number

of workers less

% of

companies

Average number

of workers more

Total 105 220,0 61% 10% 15,0 24% 14,6 5%

Sub-sector

Dies, Moulds & Press Tools 27 88,4 56% 11% 8,3 30% 17,3 4%

Light Engineering Goods 9 313,2 78% 11% 5,0 11% 3,0 0%

Machine Tools 38 266,5 63% 8% 8,0 21% 13,6 8%

Other capital Goods 22 350,5 45% 18% 27,8 32% 16,0 5%

Unorganised sector 9 6,6 89% 0% #DIV/0! 11% 2,0 0%

Division:

Pune 53 367,2 57% 11% 18,0 32% 14,5 0%

Konkan 33 59,5 67% 3% 14,0 21% 15,0 9%

Aurangabad 11 85,1 55% 18% 10,0 9% 12,0 18%

Nashik 8 93,1 75% 25% 11,5 0% #DIV/0! 0%

Company size:

Up to 9 workers 9 6,6 89% 0% #DIV/0! 11% 2,0 0%

10 to 49 workers 43 28,1 67% 12% 6,4 19% 3,9 2%

50 to 249 workers 39 109,1 49% 10% 12,8 31% 16,9 10%

250 workers or more 14 1255,9 57% 14% 41,0 29% 32,0 0%

Number of

companies

Average

number of

workers

No

answerVariables

lower

Compared to last year, the number of workers is

higher

40

not recruit new helpers for the helpers that progressed to a more specialised job roles. Similarly, it is

unclear why there was a reduction in the number of workers in component fabrication and

preparation and an increase for assembly fitter-mechanical/maintenance increases. The validation of

these findings will need to be taken prior to or during the next study on this or on a related subject.

Expected economic developments Respondents were not only asked to think about the past, but also about the future. They were

questioned about their expectations for the year to come, whether the company plans capital

investments for that period and if they expect their workforce to change.

Figure 10 shows that the industry appeared positive about the future: three out of four participants

believed that the economic situation would improve in the year to come, while 19% expected the

situation to remain the same. The remaining 4% did not expect the situation to deteriorate, but

preferred not to answer this question.

Figure 10 - Expected economic developments

Though the mood was generally positive, there were some differences between different groups of

participants. For example, a much smaller share of participants from the unorganised sector expects

the economic situation to improve while a relatively larger share of respondents of companies

producing “other” capital goods expected positive economic developments. And a bigger share of

respondents based in Aurangabad and Konkan expected the economic situation to improve than

41

respondents based in Pune, which may be because a relatively larger share of the Pune based

companies rated the current economic situation as “good”. Lastly, small and medium sized

companies felt more confident about the future economic situation than the large and micro-sized

companies.

Another indicator of the level of confidence of the business representatives is whether companies

plan for capital investments, in this case in the next year. Table 11 shows that about two-fifths (41%)

of the participating companies did plan to invest new capital in the year to come.

Table 11 - Does the company plan for capital investments in the next year?

Table 11 also shows that the answers of the unorganised sector companies were in line with the

finding that fewer unorganised companies expect the economic situation to improve than in other

sub-sectors: only one out of the nine participating unorganised sector companies had capital

investment plans. The share of other capital goods producing companies that plan investments was a

bit higher than average. Furthermore, capital investment plans were mentioned more by small and

medium-sized companies than by micro-sized and large companies. And though a relatively large

share of companies in Konkan and Aurangabad division expected the economic situation to improve,

a much smaller share of companies in these divisions had capital investment plans, while many more

companies in Pune and Nashik are considering investments. The variation in company sizes or sub-

sectors over the different divisions does not provide an explanation for this phenomenon. It is

No Yes No answer

Total (N=105) 105 54% 41% 5%

Sub-sector:

Dies, Moulds & Press Tools 27 52% 44% 4%

Light Engineering Goods 9 56% 44% 0%

Machine Tools 38 50% 42% 8%

Other capital Goods 22 50% 45% 5%

Unorganised sector 9 89% 11% 0%

Division:

Pune 53 49% 47% 4%

Konkan 33 67% 30% 3%

Aurangabad 11 55% 27% 18%

Nashik 8 38% 63% 0%

Company size:

Up to 9 workers 9 89% 11% 0%

10 to 49 workers 43 60% 37% 2%

50 to 249 workers 39 38% 54% 8%

250 workers or more 14 57% 36% 7%

Number of

companies

Does the company plan for capital

investments in the next year?Variables

42

possible that these findings only seem contradictory and are in fact very logical, but for a final

decision about this, the finding would need to be discussed further with industry experts.

The overall majority (88%) of the capital investments plans involves the adoption of new technology

that will change the way of working in the company, for example by investing in different machines.

All respondents were asked if they expected the size of the workforce to change in the next 12

months. One in ten companies did not answer this question and about half of the remaining

companies expected that the number of workers would remain the same (see Table 12). Of the

remaining 49 companies, only 6 of the respondents expected that the number of workers would

decrease, on average by 15 workers, and 43 companies foresaw an increase of the workforces, on

average by 15 workers as well. Based on the average number of workers per company, this would be

an increase of the workforce of the participating companies by about 3%.

The expected changes in the workforce was relatively small in companies producing machine tools,

because a smaller share of companies expect a smaller than average increase. On the other hand,

companies producing other capital goods expected a higher increase: combining the figures in the

table on the expected changes and the average number of workers leads to an increase of almost

5%. This finding is in line with the positive mood in these companies concerning future economic

developments and that relatively many companies producing other capital goods planned for capital

investments. Also in line with the findings described above is that the overall majority of the

unorganised sector generally do not expect any changes in the size of their labour force, while the

figures reported by small companies (with 10 to 49 employees) implied a very big increase of the

workforce of well over 12%. Medium sized companies would also grow, but only slightly more than

the average figures.

Companies in Nashik generally expected to have a larger workforce by next year. In Konkan,

relatively few companies expected the workforce to increase in the year to come, but those who did,

expected a bigger than average increase of the workforce, leading to a increase of about 5%. This

finding is in line with the finding that Konkan division based companies expected the economic

situation to improve, but not (as mentioned above) with the finding that relatively few companies of

this group plan capital investments. These findings require further validation.

Companies that expected size of the workforce to change were also asked to indicate which current

job roles would be affected and which new job roles might be introduced. Of the 49 companies that

expected the size of the workforce to change, only 11 answered this question. Their answers are

summarised in Table 34 in Appendix 2. Together, the 11 companies mentioned 102 job roles, 1 for

which the number of workers would decrease and 101 for which the number of workers would

increase. A closer look at the data reveals that 17 of the job roles mentioned would be new job roles

for the company, while the remaining 84 job roles for which the respondents expected the workforce

to increase, were already present in the company. More precisely, the workforce of the 11

companies is expected to grow especially for the job role categories welding and related roles and

“component fabrication and preparation - fabrication fitter”. The participating companies expected

that the number of workers in these job roles would grow by 166 and 162 workers respectively, i.e.

33 and 32 on average per company. Other job role category for which the participating companies

expected an increase were CNC operators (115 in total or 8.8 per company on average), conventional

machine operators (85 in total or 7.1 per company on average) and staff in projects and planning

roles (79 in total or 8.8 per company on average). The findings support the decision of the CGSC to

focus part of the survey on the skills and knowledge of fitters - fabrication (see paragraph 1.14.7).

Table 12 - Expected changes in the size of the workforce in the next year

the same

% of

companies

% of

companies

Average number

of workers less

% of

companies

Average number

of workers more

Total 105 220,0 44% 6% 15,0 41% 19,5 10%

Sub-sector

Dies, Moulds & Press Tools 27 88,4 30% 15% 17,5 44% 13,5 11%

Light Engineering Goods 9 313,2 44% 0% #DIV/0! 44% 16,3 11%

Machine Tools 38 266,5 53% 0% #DIV/0! 37% 13,7 11%

Other capital Goods 22 350,5 27% 9% 10,0 55% 32,9 9%

Unorganised sector 9 6,6 89% 0% #DIV/0! 11% 25,0 0%

Division:

Pune 53 367,2 42% 2% 10,0 57% 21,1 0%

Konkan 33 59,5 58% 6% 3,8 15% 21,0 21%

Aurangabad 11 85,1 36% 27% 7,2 9% 20,0 27%

Nashik 8 93,1 13% 0% #DIV/0! 88% 11,7 0%

Company size:

Up to 9 workers 9 6,6 89% 0% #DIV/0! 11% 25,0 0%

10 to 49 workers 43 28,1 30% 7% 8,3 47% 8,8 16%

50 to 249 workers 39 109,1 46% 8% 21,7 38% 14,7 8%

250 workers or more 14 1255,9 50% 0% #DIV/0! 50% 59,9 0%

VariablesNumber of

companies

Average number

of workers

In the next year, the number of workers is is expected to be

No

answer

lower higher

The last question of this section in the questionnaire was whether participants expected that their

workforce would need new skills in the year to come. See Table 35 in Appendix 2 for a detailed

breakdown of the answers of the respondents. The table shows that the share of respondents that

expected that the skills required from the workers would remain the same is more or less as big as

the share of respondents that expected that other skills would be required. A change in the required

skills was especially expected in the sub-sectors light engineering goods and machine tools, while the

overall majority of the respondents from the unorganised sector did not expect any changes.

Furthermore, relatively many companies based in the Konkan division expected their skill

requirements to change in the year to come, while the opposite was the case for participating

companies in Pune division. In terms of company size, the table shows that changes were especially

expected by small companies with 10 to 49 workers.

The respondents have specified what other skills they expected to be needed in the year to come.

Their answers have been analysed (see Appendix 5) and summarised in Table 36 in Appendix 2. The

50 respondents mentioned 76 different skills, of which the majority involved needing very practical

and concrete skills. Interesting is that 10 respondents felt that they would need better social skills

from their workforce and that 8 respondents wanted the workers to combine different skills rather

than specialising in one specific skill. Six respondents wanted their workers to have better technical

skills, but did not specify what skills exactly, and five respondents did not answer or could not answer

this question yet, for example because it would depend on the adoption of new technology.

The skills mentioned were not new for the sector, but may well have been new for the company in

question. However, it is also possible that some of the participants misunderstood the question and

mentioned which skills in their workers needed to improve, rather than skills that were completely

new to their workforce. The question may have to be articulated differently in a future survey on this

subject.

4.5 Training and training providers

Training of employees and contract workers One in five companies that participated in the survey had training departments and over a quarter

had training plans/budgets (see Table 37 in Appendix 2). Not surprisingly, the bigger the company,

the more likely it was for the company to have training department and a training plan / budget. And

as participating companies that produced other capital goods had on average the biggest number of

workers, a bigger share these companies had a training department and a training plan / budget than

companies in other sub-sectors.

The figures also varied a bit between sub-sectors and divisions: in terms of average number of

workers, companies based in Aurangabad and Nashik were medium sized, but a relatively big share

of them had a training department and/or training plan / budget. On the other hand, an average

Pune based company in this survey was large sized (i.e. with 250 workers or more), but relatively few

companies had training departments while a comparatively big share had a training plan / budget.

According to Table 38 in Appendix 2, practically all companies trained new employees, which is in line

with expectations. More interesting is that three quarters of the 55 participating companies that had

contract workers gave contract workers the same training as their employees (see Table 39 in

Appendix 2). However, this share was lower for companies producing machine tools or other capital

goods and for companies based in Pune.

From the perspective of the companies, and this was confirmed by some of the respondents, it

would have made sense to invest less in training of contract workers than in training of the

45

company’s own employees. After all, contract workers are only with the company as long as there is

a requirement for their skills and as soon as contract workers leave, the investment of the employer

in their skills is gone. The finding that the majority of the companies that participated in the survey

gave contract workers the same training as their employees, suggests that these companies treated

contract workers as their own employees. The reason for this could be that companies want to avoid

tensions between employees and contract workers. An alternative explanation could be that

employee and contract workers only get the minimum training needed to do their job and that not

training contract workers would affect the quality of the production. It would make sense to consult

industry experts on this subject and to conduct further research in the nature of the training offered

by the companies and the role of contractors in training contract workers.

Respondents of companies that gave contract workers different training than their own employees

were asked to explain the difference. Their answers are listed in Table 40 in Appendix 2, and suggest

that the differences in training were generally the result of the temporary involvement of the

contract workers in the company (contract workers then only got training that was directly related to

the job they were supposed to do) or to the fact that contract workers were hired for a specific job

that does not require any training.

According to the respondents, the most common type of training was on the job training (see Figure

11 below): practically all companies used this. About a third of the participants reported that non-

formal/structured training programmes in the company were used, and slightly less (28%) reported

that employees followed other formal training by an outside provider, e.g. an ITI or a private

provider.

Figure 11 - Type of training use to train new employees *)

*) Y-axis in percentage of total answers, labels are absolute number of companies that chose the answer category.

There are some differences in training preferences in the sub-sectors: Table 41 in Appendix 2 shows

that unorganised sector almost exclusively trained through on the job training. Companies producing

other capital goods and light engineering goods mentioned more often non-formal in-company

training, while this was mentioned by a relatively small share of the companies that produced dies,

moulds and press tools. The latter category mentioned “other training” more than respondents from

46

other companies. What “other training” was offered was not clarified by the respondents (see Table

42 in Appendix 2).

Relationships between companies and training providers Two out of five participating companies had a direct relation with training providers (see Table 43 in

Appendix 2). This share was higher in companies producing dies, moulds and press tools or machine

tools and lower in the other sub-sectors. The companies in Konkan division differed substantially

from the other participating companies: only 21% (7 out of 33) reported having a direct relation with

an ITI or a private training provider. As to be expected, a much bigger share of the large companies

had direct relationships with training institutes than smaller companies.

The nature of the relationship between the companies and the training institutes differed, but Figure

12 shows that recruitment activities were an important part for a big majority of more than two

thirds of the 42 companies with a direct relationship with one or more training institutes. Another

important element in the relationship with training institutes was that apprenticeship students or

trainees of the training institutes were placed in the company (45%), and companies welcoming

visiting students of training institutes (36%). A very small number (i.e. 6) of companies provided the

institutes with training facilities and five companies qualified the nature of their relationship with

training 5) institute as “other”. The number of companies with a direct relation with training institute

is too small to report on differences between sub-sectors: see Table 44 in Appendix 2 for more

information.

Figure 12 - Nature of relationship between companies and training institutes *)

*) Y-axis in percentage of total answers, labels are absolute number of companies that chose the answer category.

The descriptions of the relationships that were qualified as “other” are listed in Table 45 in

Appendix 2. The nature of these relationships varied from activities in the context of Corporate Social

Responsibility to another approach to recruitment and having students of ITIs or colleges work in the

company. Two companies worked with the training institute on content, for example by organising

seminars or giving lectures, and by asking the institute to give input for reports.

Company representatives were also asked about the issues they encountered when dealing with

training institutes. The respondents reported 95 issues, of which almost a quarter referred to

47

outdated curricula resulting in students lacking necessary knowledge and skills (see Figure 13). A

smaller, but still significant number of the reported issues concerned the skills of the institute’s staff

being insufficient, students lacking motivation and not having the right attitude, and the absence of a

good training infrastructure that would allow the training institute to train their students properly.

Despite these complaints, many respondents said that they understood that institutes often do not

have sufficient resources to offer better training. No big differences were found between companies

based in different divisions or operating in different sub-sectors (see Table 46 and Table 47 in

Appendix 2 respectively).

About 15% of the issues were “other issues”, which are listed in Table 48 in Appendix 2. Most of

these “other” issues can be classified under one or more of the pre-defined categories. Generally,

participants reported that there is a gap between the quality of the students with a certificate or

diploma and the needs of the companies. They felt that training institutes should be aware of this

and teach students about the latest technology, and offer “practice oriented” courses, so students

can develop skills and knowledge that is in demand in the companies.

Figure 13 - Most important issues when dealing with training institutes

4.6 Employee benefits and the going rates for the most common job roles

Benefits for employees and contract workers Apart from the financial package, companies offer employee several benefits. As these benefits

contribute to the total cost of labour, respondents in the survey were asked which benefits they

generally offered to their employees. Their answers are summarised in Figure 14 and in Table 49 and

Table 50 in Appendix 2.

48

Figure 14 - Employee benefits

Figure 14 shows that three benefits were the most common: medical insurance or medical services

for employees, bonuses and paid leave days.

Four out of five respondents indicated that the company offered medical insurance or medical

services for employees. Table 50 in Appendix 2 shows that the share was higher in larger companies

than in small companies. Though the question clearly asked about for medical insurance or services

other than the Employees' State Insurance (ESI) package4, it is likely that the respondents did not

make a difference between the insurance for employees earning more than the maximum ESI

amount and employees that take part in this scheme. Under the ESI scheme, both the insured

employees and their dependents are entitled to medical treatment. However, offering medical

insurance or medical services to family members was not very common among the participating

companies: just over one in five companies reported this benefit, though the share is a lot higher

among medium-sized and large companies than in the smaller ones.

According to the respondents, employees in their companies had on average 25.5 leave days. Legally

(i.e. according to the Factories Act), employees are entitled to 1 paid leave day for every 20 days of

work, amounting to maximum 12 paid leave days per year. However, according to an article on

www.dnaindia.com, employees get on average 18 paid days of leave5. In addition to this, there are

three public holidays during which all employees are off (i.e. January 26(Republic Day), August 15

(Independence Day) and October 2 (Mahatma Gandhi's Birthday)) and several holidays that are not

observed throughout India. It is plausible that the average number of paid leave days mentioned in

this survey, includes national and regional public holidays, but may still be higher than the legal

minimum.

4 The Employees' State Insurance is a social security and health insurance scheme for Indian employees

earning wages of INR 15.000 per month or less. Considering the type of work in the companies that

participated in this survey, it is very likely that many employees of the participating companies are obliged

to take part in this scheme. 5 See www.dnaindia.com/mumbai/report-53-indians-feel-paid-vacation-time-given-to-them-not-fair-2013573

(retrieved on 1 November 2015)

http://www.dnaindia.com/

http://www.dnaindia.com/mumbai/report-53-indians-feel-paid-vacation-time-given-to-them-not-fair-2013573

49

Other employee benefits that were mentioned by a relatively big share of respondents were bonuses

(86%) and gratuity (67%)6. Less common benefits were transport to and from work (and especially

reimbursement of transport costs) and the provision of meals. Only one company offered unpaid

leave to its workers. Two out of five employers mentioned having an accident policy for workers

while on the job. However, this is not so much an employee benefit, but part of the operational

management strategy of the company.

One out of five respondents mentioned “other benefits” (see Table 53 in Appendix 2). These other

benefits involved mostly arranging accommodation to employees, support in education (for the

employee or for his or her children), other insurance of employees, and the provision of uniforms

and safety gear. Just like having an accident policy for workers while on the job, the provision of

uniforms and safety gear would not be an employee benefit, but part of operational management of

the company.

The figures on employee benefits are broken down by sub-sector in Table 49 and by company size in

Table 50 in Appendix 2. The figures show that there were not so many differences between the sub-

sectors, except for companies that are part of the unorganised sector, where the number of

employee benefits was limited, which is in line with the nature of the company.The company size has

a strong effect on the employee benefits that are offered: the bigger the company is, the more

benefits it offers to its employees. This may be because large companies are legally required to offer

more benefits than smaller companies, but also because large companies generally have more

professional human resources departments than smaller companies.

The overall majority (80%) of companies made provident fund payments for their employees (see

Table 52 in Appendix 2). One in ten companies did not answer this question and the remaining 10%

did not make provident fund payments. Table 52 shows that the companies that did not make these

payments are mostly micro-sized and small companies, while almost all (except for one) medium

sized companies and large companies did. Though some respondents were not sure about the

amounts they paid into the provident fund, the majority (72 out of 84 companies that made

provident fund payments) mentioned paying 12% of the total salary, which is in line with regulations.

Contractors are responsible for the financial package and other benefits for contract workers.

However, if contract workers work side by side with regular employees, but receive very different

pay and benefits, the atmosphere on the shop floor may be negatively affected. That is why some

companies also offer services and extras to contract workers. Participants representing 55 companies

with contract workers were asked about these services and extras for contract workers and their

responses are listed in Table 54 in Appendix 2. Like the benefits of regular employees, medical

insurance or medical services, and paid leave days are mentioned by the majority of the respondents

as benefits for contract workers, which is not in line with expectations because medical insurance

(65%) and paid leave days (75%) would typically be the responsibility of the contractor. This is an

indication that the question may need to be rephrased in a future survey on this subject. Other

benefits companies mentioned for contract workers are bonuses (69%) and gratuity (31%).

Going rates for the most common job roles Employers are generally hesitant to share information about the remuneration of their employees.

That is why respondents were asked what wages / salaries they would offer to recruit new

employees or to hire contract workers for the most common job roles. Respondents gave a minimum

6 Gratuity is a statutory benefit payable by employers (directly or via an insurance) to employee after 5 years

of continuous full time service.

50

amount and a maximum amount for each job role, both for permanent employees and for contract

workers. The results are presented in Figure 15 and in Table 51 in Appendix 2.

Respondents have given minimum and maximum rates for employees in 470 of the total of 584 job

roles that were mentioned (see paragraph 4.2). For contract workers, 59 respondents mentioned a

minimum and maximum rate.

Looking at Figure 15 and at Table 51, it is immediately clear that the rates for permanent employees

are much higher than for contract workers, both for the average minimum fees that were mentioned

and for the maximum fees. Also, the figures show that contract workers are not hired for certain job

roles, for example for quality roles and administrative roles. During the interviews, some

respondents explained that contract workers were especially hired for relatively simple jobs and that

contract workers did not need to have experience, justifying a lower rate. This would explain the

lower minimum and maximum rate for contract workers. Also, respondents stressed that jobs in

which strategic information about the company is used or produced, are generally not done by

contract workers, which could explain why no fees for contract workers are mentioned for quality

roles and administrative staff.

Figure 15 clearly shows that the range between the minimum and maximum rate for employees is

much larger for some job role categories than for others. For example, for categories like

designer/draughtsmen, quality roles, projects and planning roles, and marketing, research and

service roles, the difference between the minimum and maximum monthly rate varies from almost

INR 30 thousand to well over INR 40 thousand. For employees in welding and related roles, helpers,

and CNC setter cum operator roles, the range is much smaller, varying from INR 4 thousand to just

over INR 5 thousand. This suggests that the first mentioned group of job role categories offers

potential for professional growth, while employees in the second group of job role categories have

less room for growth.

Lastly, the average monthly rate for the production role category “component fabrication and

preparation” is much higher than for the other production roles. This can indicate that there is a

longer career path for workers in this job role, but might also be an indication of a shortage of

capable workers for this job role category, forcing employers to offer higher wages.

Figure 15 - Minimum and maximum going rates for the most common job roles for employees and contract workers

4.7 Technical information on CNC setters cum operators and on Fitters-Fabrication After the interviews about human resources practices, the interviewers had a separate meeting with

one or more shop floor managers to discuss their experience with CNC setter cum operators and

with fitters-fabrication in more detail. The questions for this meeting have been prepared in

collaboration with the capital goods expert of the project, who will use the information as input for

the development and/or evaluation of curricula for these job roles.

For each job role, shop floor managers have been asked about the number of employees, their

educational backgrounds, the level of their skills, and also whether companies organise training for

the staff in these fields. Also, more detailed information has been collected about a range of skills,

more specifically a rating of the current work force, a rating of graduates in this field, and the

importance of these skills for the company. The results are presented separately for each job role in

the paragraphs below.

CNC setter cum operators and related job roles Representatives of 53 companies have answered questions about staff working in CNC operator,

setter or programmer positions. In total, they mentioned 94 positions (see Table 55 in Appendix 2),

of which 19 (20%) CNC operators, 28 (30%) CNC operators / setters and 34 (36%) CNC programmers

and 13 (14%) other job roles in the same field. On average 8.3 employees would work in each CNC

related job role, but this number is much higher for CNC operators and CNC operators / setters, i.e.

12.7 and 12.8 operators respectively. The participating companies employed 3.4 CNC programmers

on average.

The majority of CNC operators and CNC operators / setters had an ITI or CGSC certificate, i.e. 79%

and 71% respectively (see Table 56 in Appendix 2). Two respondents reported that their CNC

operators had a lower education background (i.e. class 10-12) and two employed CNC operators with

a diploma level background. For CNC operators/setters, 5 respondents had employees that finished

education at class 8 – 12, and three at diploma level. CNC programmers generally had a higher

education level: more than half of the respondents reported that the education background of CNC

programmers was at diploma level and 38% reported that their CNC programmers would have an ITI

or CGSC certificate. On a scale of 1 to 5, the shop floor managers rated their CNC operators,

operators/setters and programmers at 3.4, 3.6 and 3.7 respectively, which means that they are

generally satisfied with their staff in these positions, but that there is room for improvement. The 9

respondents that have staff working as CNC operators/setters/programmers are most satisfied with

the skills of their workers, rating them at 4.1 on a scale of 1 to 5. Considering that these employees

combine the skills needed for three different job roles, this is not surprising. In fact, it is in line with

the reported wish of the respondents for workers that can work in more than one area (see page 44).

Practically all respondents (98%) mention that they send their staff working as CNC setter-cum-

operator or in related job roles for training (see Table 57 in Appendix 2). In line with the previously

reported finding on training type (see page 45), informal on-the-job training was most common: this

was used by 96% of the respondents. Also popular was a non-formal / structured training

programme in the company, which was used by a third of the respondents. Only 4 (8%) respondents

worked with official apprentices and 6 (12%) of the respondents offered their employees formal

training by an outside provider, e.g. by an ITI/ITC or private provider. The duration of training (see

Table 58 in Appendix 2) varied: in a third (i.e. 6) of the companies, CNC-operators were trained for a

period of up to a week, 22% (i.e. 4) respondents trained workers in this job role between a week and

a month and 28% (i.e. 5) trained them between three and five months. CNC operators/setters were

generally trained a bit longer: in a quarter (i.e. 7) of the companies, these workers were trained

53

between three and five months and 29% (i.e. 8) even for more than a year. In ten of the participating

companies (29%) CNC programmers were trained for three to five months and in 8 companies (24%),

workers in this job role were trained for up to one week. Five companies (15%) trained CNC

programmers for more than a year and a similar number trained them for 1 week to 1 month.

Figure 16 and Table 59 in Appendix 2 contain the rating of skills and knowledge of the current

workforce in CNC positions and of graduates in this field. Also, the importance to the company is

rated for each item.

Figure 16 shows that on all the items, respondents rated their workforce at 3.2 or higher (on a scale

of 1 to 5), while graduates were rated at 2.9 or higher. The distribution of the scores on the items is

strongly skewed towards the right and the variance (not mentioned in the table) is rather small. In

short, the items do not have a statistical “normal distribution”. Though respondents did report

several issues when dealing with training providers (see page 45 and 46), the distribution of the

ratings indicates that respondents were quite satisfied with the skills and knowledge of their

workforce and of the graduates. An explanation can be that the training in the field of CNC is

sufficient, but that the reported issues concern other fields. Alternatively, respondents may have

found it difficult to criticize their team-members and interns and would therefore give a score of 3 or

above, which would be a “social desirability bias”

Comparing the scores of the different items, it seems that there would be room for improvement for

the skills of the workforce in their “use of shop mathematics” (average score 3.2) and to a lesser

extend in the “use of hand tools” and “CNC G & M codes” (both have an average score of 3.5) and in

“interpreting engineering drawings” and “CNC canned cycles” (each scored at 3.6 on average).

Only few respondents had direct experience with employees that recently completed an education

or training in the field of CNC. Those who did, rated the skills of the current workforce generally

higher than the skills of the graduates, which is not surprising as the latter group does not have as

much experience as the current employees. Only the skill “use of shop mathematics” is rated higher

for graduates than for the current workforce and the skill “interpreting engineering drawings” is

rated almost equal for the current workforce and for graduates. This finding supports the remark

above that these two skills among the current workforce may need to be improved. For training and

education providers, the findings suggest that more attention should be given to “CNC G & M codes”

(average score of 2.9). And with an average score of 3 (albeit by a limited number of respondents),

training and education might be improved on “use of hand tools”, “CNC vertical machining centre

setup”, “CNC vertical machining centre operation” and “CNC canned cycles”.

All items in the questionnaire were considered “important” for the company: on a scale of 1 to 5, the

average score varied from 4.3 to 4.7.

Additional remarks on about the skills and knowledge of the current workforce in CNC positions and

graduates in the field of CNC, as well as the importance to the company are listed in Table 60 in

Appendix 2.

Fitters fabrication and related job roles Representatives of 24 companies responded to questions about staff working in fitter-fabrication

positions. In total, they mentioned 56 positions (see Table 61 in Appendix 2), of which 15 (27%)

welders, 12 (21%) fitters-fabrication and 7 (13%) fitters/welders. Sub arc operators, welders fitters

and welder/fabricators were each mentioned 5 times (i.e. 9%), and other job roles in the same field

were mentioned by 7 companies (i.e. 12%).

Figure 16 - Rating the skills and knowledge of staff in the field of CNC work, graduates in this field and/or the importance of this for the company

On average 12.2 employees worked in these job roles, but this number is much higher for welders-

fitters (23.8 employees). The number of welders is also above average (12.7 employees), while the

average number of employees is lower for the other job roles.

The overall majority of the respondents mentioned that employees in the fitter-fabrication job roles

had an ITI/CGSC certificate. Only some respondents mention lower educational achievements for

their staff in some job roles, for example, 3 out of 11 mention that their fitter-fabrication had

finished class 10-12 and half of the fitters/welders had finished class 8-10 or class 10-12. As for the

rating of the skills, shop floor managers rated their staff in the fitter-fabrication job roles between 3.5

and 4 on a scale of 1 to 5.

All 24 respondents mentioned that the company’s staff working in fitter-fabrication job roles were

trained (see Table 63 in Appendix 2). As is the case for the CNC operator/setter/programmer job

roles, informal on-the-job training was most popular: it was used in all participating companies.

Seven respondents (29%) used a non-formal / structured training programme in the company and

only 2 (8%) worked with official apprentices. The duration of training varied (see Table 64 in

Appendix 2), but generally about half of the respondents trained their fitter-fabrication staff for 1-2

months or 3 to 5 months, and about a quarter of the respondents trained their staff for up to 1

month.

Figure 17 and Table 65 contain the rating of skills and knowledge of the current workforce in fitter-

fabrication positions and of graduates in this field. Also, the importance to the company was rated

for each item. Similar to the rating of skills and knowledge of CNC operators/setters/programmers,

respondents rated their fitter-fabrication workforce relatively high. Only one item, “GMAW (Gas

Metal Arc Welding) equipment - recognize, setup and operate”, is rated at 2.8 on a scale of 1 to 5.

The other ratings were all 3.3 or higher. As explained above, this can mean that the respondents

were just satisfied with their workforce or that they found it difficult to criticize their team-members,

giving them a score of 3 or above, which would be a “social desirability bias”.

Comparing the scores of the different items, it seems that there is room for improvement for the

workforce in the above-mentioned skill “Gas Metal Arc Welding equipment - recognize, setup and

operate”, and to a lesser extend in “interpreting engineering drawings” and the “use of shop

mathematics”. The average score was 3.3 for each of the latter two items.

Very few respondents (i.e. 4) had direct experience with employees that recently completed an

education or training for fitter-fabrication. However, the ones that did, gave graduates a higher rate

on some of the items. The rating of graduates for interpreting engineering drawings was 0.7 point

higher than for the workforce. For “Gas Metal Arc Welding equipment - recognize, setup and

operate”, the difference was also 0.7 point, but this is based on the scores of only 2 respondents. A

smaller difference of 0.2 in favour of graduates is found for the skills “use of shop mathematics” and

“examine work pieces”. On the other hand, the skills and knowledge of the workforce are rated

higher for welding positions (a difference of 0.6). The difference (in favour of the workforce) for

“Oxy-Fuel Gas Cutting equipment - recognize, setup and operate” and “Plasma Arc Cutting

equipment - recognize, setup and operate” is 0.9 and 0.8 respectively, but the average rating of

graduates on these items is based on the answers of only two respondents, which means that the

actual difference in skill and knowledge of workers and graduates may be smaller. If necessary, this

can be investigated further in future studies in this field.

Similar to the items about the skills and knowledge of CNC operators/setters/programmers: all

questions about the skills and knowledge of fitters-fabrication were considered “important” for the

company: on a scale of 1 to 5, the average score varied from 4.3 to 4.8.

Figure 17 -- Rating of the skills and knowledge of workers in field of fitter fabrication, graduates in this field and/or the importance of this for the company

Additional remarks on about the skills and knowledge of the current fitters-fabrication workforce and

graduates in this field, as well as the importance to the company are listed in Table 66 in Appendix 2.

Changes in number of workers The final question for the shop floor managers was whether the number of workers in CNC

operator/setter/programmer and fitters-fabrication would change in the years to come. If so,

respondents were asked to specify the size of the change. In Table 67 in Appendix 2, their answers

are listed. The table show that the respondents were in a very positive mood: they all expected that

the number of workers in all job roles would increase or remain the same. More precisely, half of the

respondents expected an increase and the other half expect the number of workers to remain the

same.

The average increase would be especially big for CNC setters, welder-fitters, CNC operators and

welders. The total number of CNC operators was expected to increase the most (9 respondents

expecting an increase of 13 workers on average), followed by welders (6 respondents and an average

increase of 10.8), welder-fitters (3 respondents expecting an increase of 21 on average) and CNC

programmers (12 respondents expecting an increase of 5.1 on average).

Considering the limited number of respondents, the reported expectations may be indicative for

what was expected for the work force in the participating companies and not for sector wide

developments in Maharashtra for which further (econometric) research will be required.

58

5 Conclusions and recommendations

Considering that this labour market analysis was a pilot study and that the participation in the survey

was limited (see paragraph 3.2), the findings in this survey may not be representative for all capital

goods producing companies in Maharashtra. However, the labour market analysis has contributed to

clarifying a number of issues.

The findings and recommendations presented below are not necessarily new and may have been

anecdotally stated in different forums in the past. In contrast, the current findings and conclusions

are primary and evidence-based (i.e. not on based on assumptions), and express the views of a range

of companies from different divisions in Maharashtra, from different sub-sectors and of different

company sizes. The study provides proof of and further details on selected issues and constraints

related to the demand and supply of labour in the capital goods sector in Maharashtra.

This last chapter contains the conclusions and recommendations that can be based on the findings

reported above. In the next paragraphs, the main findings and conclusions for each subject are

briefly discussed, followed by one or more recommendations.

5.1 Set up a system for labour market analysis

Findings and conclusions Labour markets are not always predictable and are influenced by many internal and external factors.

There are important differences between companies in different sub-sectors, regions, company sizes

and other characteristics of companies. For example, in this survey, the mood in companies in the

unorganised sector was much more negative than in other sub-sectors. And though many companies

were not happy about the economic situation at the time, the total size of the workforce of the

participating companies had increased, suggesting an increase in productivity. Understanding the

reasons behind these findings requires a qualitative labour market analysis rather than econometric

forecasting models. This is also the case for subjects like skill problems, retention and recruitment

problems, recruiting women and persons with disabilities for specific job roles, etc.

Recommendations The traditional manpower planning approach differs from the qualitative methodology used in this

survey. Qualitative labour market analysis, or labour market signalling, implemented on a regular

basis, is more useful as a means of informing policy makers and other stakeholders on labour market

developments. It would be good if a system were adopted that is sensitive to fluctuations and

differences in the labour market and that would help to understand unexpected changes, differences

between sub-sectors, company sizes and regions, etc.

5.2 Active involvement in future labour market analyses

Findings and conclusions Convincing representatives of companies to take part in the survey was difficult, whereas having

access to employers is key to any labour market analysis. Due to circumstances, little time was left

prior to the survey to approach companies to “test the water”, which was why the active support of

the CGSC representatives during the first week of the survey was essential in arranging appointments

for interviews with a number of large sized enterprises. During the following weeks of the survey, the

project and the interviewers had to take up this role, which was time consuming and not always

successful. In the final stages of the survey, local representatives of CGSC member associations in

59

Aurangabad and Nashik have helped convincing companies to take part in the survey, and as a result,

the response rate of companies in these divisions increased significantly.

Despite these efforts to convince companies to participate in the survey, the number of companies

that took part was less than the experts had hoped. This means that generalising the findings of the

survey can only be done very carefully. Secondly, though more companies will now know of the

existence and the role of the CGSC, and how the CGSC relates to the sub-sector associations they are

a member of, the survey could have been used more as a marketing instrument for the CGSC to

increase the awareness of the companies in this field.

This LMA for the demand side should ideally have been complemented by an analysis of the supply

side, e.g. obtaining data and opinions from training institution principals, teachers and students.

However, the survey budget did not allow for these additional activities, which is why the

information and views presented in this report are based on the responses of the 105 participating

companies and to a certain extent on additional information received from selected key informants.

Recommendations CGSC and/or its member associations could consider to not only conduct regular labour market

analyses on different subjects and in different states, but to also play an active and leading role in

the design, implementation, analysis and reporting and to not leave it to an outside consultant. . This

would increase the CGSC’s own knowledge and understanding of the sector, and it would also be an

excellent way to use the surveys to increase the visibility of the CGSC in the sector and, if possible, to

further build up the CGSC’s network of companies.

5.3 Determine the size of the unorganised sector

Findings and conclusions The small number of unorganised sector companies taking part in the survey could mean that the

sector is highly organised, but it is also possible that the chosen approach to identify unorganised

sector companies was not appropriate. Considering the impressive size of the unorganised sector in

India, it is very well possible that unorganised sector companies are considerably under-represented

in this survey.

If the capital goods sector is indeed highly organised, it would make sense to only target organised

sector companies when designing and implementing skill development programmes and recognition

of prior learning initiatives. However, if the number of unorganised sector capital goods producing

companies and the number of persons these companies employ is not negligible, the design of these

programmes and initiatives would need to be adjusted to the needs of the unorganised sector

companies and their workers. This is especially the case for recognition of prior learning initiatives,

asmany workers in the unorganised sector do not have official qualifications but acquire knowledge

and skills on the job.

Recommendations At the moment, there is no statistical data on the share of unorganised sector companies in the

capital goods sector and the number of workers these companies would employ is unknown.

Therefore, it is recommended to establish the number of unorganised sector companies producing

capital goods and their number of employees through further research, and to use this information

when designing and implementing future activities in skill development.

60

5.4 Use the information about the most common job roles

Findings and conclusions As mentioned in the report, the 105 respondents have mentioned 584 job roles being present in

their companies. As similar job roles can go by different names (for example, fitters-fabrication are

likely to do the same work as fabrication-welders or fitters-welders, etc.), the 584 job roles have

been recoded into 46 job role names. Coding has been based on the descriptions given by the

respondents and as much as possible in line with the NOS/QPs developed by the CGSC. Because 46

job role names give too much detail for an analysis of the workforce in the participating 105

companies, the job role names have been merged into 20 job role categories, using the occupational

map developed by CGSC .

Recommendations A closer look is advised at the coding of the job roles into job role names and job role categories. This

information may be relevant when the NOS/QPs are updated. Depending on the share of

unorganised sector companies in the capital goods sector (see the previous paragraph), consulting

with organisations representing the unorganised sector is advised to understand how the job roles in

these companies differ from the organised sector and to find out what support would be needed to

assist unorganised sector companies in improving their skills base.

5.5 Recruitment and selection

Findings and conclusions A. Companies consulted during the survey use many different recruitment methods and selection

criteria. There was a strong preference for informal recruitment methods, but this preference

was especially strong among unorganised sector companies and small companies with up to 50

employees. Medium-sized and larger companies used more formal ways of recruitment. Almost

none of the companies recruited via employment exchanges. Selection criteria also differed in

companies of different sizes. Having a certificate, diploma or degree was not considered

important in the unorganised sector companies, but having work experience was. In bigger

companies, respondents used (written or practical) tests and references from previous

employers, which was not the case for small and medium-sized companies. The behaviour of the

potential employee during the interview was into account by companies of all sizes.

The strong preference for informal recruitment methods is a common feature for recruitment

worldwide. In many countries, this has led to government employment agencies shifting their

focus from placement-related services to active labour market measures. In other words,

employment services move away from simple matching support towards offering career

guidance, support to establishments, especially for small enterprises, and tailor made training

for specific target groups. In these fields, public employment services often face competition

from private organisations offering (part of) these services.

B. Smaller companies preferred recruiting underqualified workers and larger companies preferred

people with the right qualification. This may be because the limited number of workers in

smaller companies implies that the job roles will be more general while the larger companies

can afford to have more specialised positions among their staff. Yet representatives of smaller

companies also mentioned that workers were keen to work for larger companies, so recruiting

(and training) underqualified staff by smaller companies could be a way to control labour costs

and to secure their labour force. This information would need to be taken into account when

developing initiatives concerning recognition of prior learning.

61

C. Just over half of the participants would consider recruiting women for one or more of the

common job roles and 30% would consider recruiting persons with disabilities. In the

unorganised sector, reluctance to recruit women and persons with disabilities was highest.

Respondents mentioned that 18% of the most common job roles would be open for women and

8% for people with disabilities. Job role categories mentioned most for women were designer /

draughtsman, CNC Programmer, CNC (setter cum) operator, and Quality, Managerial and

Supervisory roles. Job role categories mentioned for disabled people were CNC Programmer,

designer / draughtsman and CNC operator.

D. A third of the companies recruited employees locally and almost half of the company

representatives recruited throughout India. Respondents highlighted that anyone is welcome to

work as long as they are willing to move to the base of the company.

Recommendations A. Public and private organisations offering employment services would need to focus especially on

offering services to job seekers (like career guidance) and to companies (in recruitment and

selection). They might want to target small companies specifically, as these reported more

retention problems and a higher number of vacancies on the one hand, but were very positive

about the economic developments and expected their workforce to grow on the other hand.

The information collected during labour market surveys and through other research should be

used as a tool in providing information about the different job roles in the sector for career

guidance purposes by relevant organisations.

B. When developing recognition of prior learning initiatives, take the recruitment and retention

strategy of small companies into account: recognition of prior learning should not increase the

apprehensions of employers that the employees may leave after getting an official qualification.

C. Labour market shortages might be targeted by considering workers that are currently a minority

in the sector, i.e. women and persons with disabilities. It might be good to conduct a more in-

depth study on how the companies might be willing to do this and if and what changes are

needed in the companies to realise this.

D. Though companies are generally willing to recruit from all over India, it would make sense if the

planning of education and training takes the local demand for labour into account.

5.6 Supply of labour for common job roles

Findings and conclusions Higher turnover and recruitment and skill problems were reported especially for the most common

job role category CNC operator. Fewer, but still more than average problems were mentioned for

tool and die makers, conventional machine operators, welding and related roles and for marketing,

research and service roles. Unfortunately, respondents also expected the demand to increase in the

year to come for four of these five job roles categories (i.e. CNC operators, tool and die makers,

conventional machine operators and welding and related roles).

62

The most reported recruitment problem is non availability of suitable candidates in the labour

market, followed by candidates not having the right technical skills and knowledge. A few companies

mentioned that the candidates lack soft skills like creativity and problem solving skills.

Recommendations Workers active as CNC operators, tool and die makers, conventional machine operators and in

welding and related roles seemed to be in short supply in the labour market. Also the demand for

workers in these job roles is likely to grow. Though the rates paid for employees in these job roles are

not exceptionally high, it would make sense for private and public training providers to concentrate

on training for these job roles, using up to date curricula that are in line with the relevant NOS/QPs.

5.7 Role of companies and training providers in education and training

Findings and conclusions About half of the respondents reported about expected changes in the skills required from the

workers. Changes in skill requirements were especially expected among companies producing light

engineering goods and machine tools, companies in Konkan division, and in small companies (i.e. 10

to 49 workers). The nature of the expected changes in skill requirement varied. Some respondents

mentioned very practical and concrete skills like machine operating, designing and fitting, etc. Of

course these are not new skills for the sector, but may be new for the company in question.

Technical skills and knowledge were mentioned as well, especially the ability to understand

engineering drawings. Also, respondents reported that they would need their workers to combine

different skills rather than the skills for one specific job role only.

In all companies, and especially in the unorganised sector, the vast majority of training is provided on

the job. About a third of the companies offered structured training programmes in the company and

an almost 30% offered formal training by an outside training provider.

The relationship of companies with education and training providers, involved mostly recruitment

activities, traineeships/apprenticeships and company visits of students to the company.

Several companies reported that new workers generally lacked practical skills. They would like

education and training providers to teach students about the latest technology and have “practice

oriented” courses, allowing students to develop skills and knowledge that are in demand in the

companies.

Recommendations A. Considering companies’ need for workers with more practical skills, collaboration between

companies and education and training providers in offering additional practical skills through

apprenticeships, internships and other short training programmes needs to be encouraged.

B. For some more specialist training the utilisation of company facilities and equipment would be

more efficient and useful than procuring additional facilities and equipment for the training

centres. Policy makers could consider incentives for companies and training providers to

participate in such schemes. The initiative to establish this collaboration would need to come

from training providers rather than expecting companies to initiate this.

C. Ministries and other organisations directly involved in vocational education and training may

review the handling of equipment and tools in their training centres and ensure that the practical

63

elements of the curricula are implemented as planned and/or are improved.

D. As employers mentioned that they will require several new skills and technical knowledge,

training providers could play a more active role in the upgrading of skills of the current

workforce. They could organise tailor-made training for companies and actively approach

companies to discuss opportunities to collaborate. Of course, the exact content of the trainings

would need to be based on a detailed needs assessment at local level.

E. Lastly, shop floor managers have been asked in detail about their experience with CNC setter

cum operators and with fitters-fabrication, both regarding the current workforce and workers

that recently obtained a certificate or diploma. The information will be used to evaluate a

curriculum developed for these two job roles by the project. It is recommended to repeat this for

updated or newly developed NOS/QPs-based curricula for other job roles as well – either as part

of a new labour market analysis or as a separate enterprise survey.

5.8 Career paths

Findings and conclusions The sizes of the participating companies varied substantially, as did the composition of their

workforce. Workers in large companies had a higher degree of specialisation, while job roles in

smaller companies were often more generalist by nature. Of course, this would make economic

sense for companies but a high degree of specialisation can have disadvantages for employees: it

could reduce workers’ chances for moving up the career ladder, unless the company has a suitable

training programme to help employees progress through the ranks. Career prospects in smaller

companies will be limited due to the generalist nature of job roles, which means that career

prospects of employees in smaller companies will be limited as well.

As always, there are exceptions to the above-mentioned. For some job roles, the range between the

minimum and the maximum wages for employees is much larger than for other job roles. For

example, for categories like designer/draughtsmen, quality roles, projects and planning roles, and

marketing, research and service roles, the difference between the minimum and maximum monthly

rate is substantially larger than for employees in welding and related roles, helpers, and CNC setter

cum operator roles, the range is much smaller. This suggests that the first mentioned group of job

role categories offers potential for professional growth, which is hardly the case for employees in the

second group of job role categories have less room for growth.

Recommendations The Occupational Map of the sector (Consultants Progilence & GlobalPeers, 2014) developed by

CGSC is indicative of the vertical and horizontal career progressions. This must be fully utilised by the

training system to counsel the trainees on potential careers, and when developing curricula, both for

public and private training providers. Also, companies with a high number of specialised job roles

could use career progression as a retention strategy in their human resources management strategy.

64

6 List of consulted documents

Capital Goods Skill Council (2013). Capital Goods Skill Council. By the Industry For the Industry.

Downloaded on 16 September 2015 from: www.cgsc.in/CGSC_Brochure_Aug13.pdf

Capital Goods Skill Council (2015). 56 National Occupational Standards/Qualification Packs.

Downloaded on 16 September 2015 from www.cgsc.in/qualification_pack.html

Consultants Progilence & GlobalPeers (2014). Capital Goods Sector Skills Council National

Occupational Standards Development Project. Occuptional map.

Downloaded on 16 September 2015 from: www.cgsc.in/om.pdf

Department of Heavy Industry, Ministry of Heavy Industries & Public Enterprises (2011). Report of

the working group on Capital Goods & Engineering Sector for the 12th Five year Plan (2012 – 2017).

Downloaded on 10 November 2015 from: http://dhi.nic.in/writereaddata/WG_CGES_rep_2011-

17.pdf

Directorate of Economics and Statistics, Planning Department, Government of Maharashtra (2015),

Economic Survey of Maharashtra 2014-15. Downloaded on 16 September 2015 from

http://mahades.maharashtra.gov.in/files/publication/esm_2014-15_eng.pdf

Government of India (2015). Draft National Policy for Skill Development and Entrepreneurship 2015.

Retrieved on 10 November from:

https://mygov.in/sites/default/files/master_image/Draft_National_Policy_for_Skill_Development_an

d_Entrepreneurship_2015.pdf

India-EU Skills Development Project (2013). Understanding the demand side of the labour market.

The automotive industry in Maharashtra. Downloaded on 16 September 2015 from: www.india-

euskills.com/img/documents/docs/Resized_Technical_Report_LMI_Report_FINAL.PDF

Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation (MOSPI) (2008). National Industrial

Classification 2008. Downloaded on 16 September 2015 from:

mospi.nic.in/Mospi_New/upload/nic_2008_17apr09.pdf

National Commission for Enterprises in the Unorganised Sector (2008). Working Paper No 2.

Contribution of the Unorganised sector to GDP. Report of the Sub Committee of a NCEUS Task Force.

Downloaded on 16 September from: nceuis.nic.in/Final_Booklet_Working_Paper_2.pdf

National Skill Development Corporation (2012). Human Resource and Skill Requirements in the

Capital Goods Sector (2012-17, 2017-22). Downloaded on 16 September from:

www.cgsc.in/Humanresource_skill_requirement.pdf

http://www.cgsc.in/CGSC_Brochure_Aug13.pdf

http://www.cgsc.in/qualification_pack.html

http://www.cgsc.in/om.pdf

http://dhi.nic.in/writereaddata/WG_CGES_rep_2011-17.pdf

http://dhi.nic.in/writereaddata/WG_CGES_rep_2011-17.pdf

http://mahades.maharashtra.gov.in/files/publication/esm_2014-15_eng.pdf

https://mygov.in/sites/default/files/master_image/Draft_National_Policy_for_Skill_Development_and_Entrepreneurship_2015.pdf

https://mygov.in/sites/default/files/master_image/Draft_National_Policy_for_Skill_Development_and_Entrepreneurship_2015.pdf

http://mospi.nic.in/Mospi_New/upload/nic_2008_17apr09.pdf

http://nceuis.nic.in/Final_Booklet_Working_Paper_2.pdf

http://www.cgsc.in/Humanresource_skill_requirement.pdf

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